The plague in northern China warns old diseases

However, the plague is now easily treated, and it is unlikely of an epidemic of disease.

Authorities in a town in the region of interior Mongolia in northern China have raised the alarm after a case of a patient allegedly suffering from bubonic plague has been reported, Reuters reports.

Health authorities in the town of Bayanur on Sunday issued a third-degree warning -- the second lowest level from four levels, the agency said, citing that the warning came after four cases of plague were reported on Home Mongolia in November, including two cases of pneumonic wound, a more deadly version.

Plague cases are not rare in China, but infections are becoming more rare, Reuters points out, adding that 26 cases of disease and 11 deaths have been reported between 2009 and 2018.

The confirmation of Chinese health authorities that a bar in domestic Mongolia was infected by bubonic plague indicates that even though everyone is struggling with the pandemic of the new virus, old threats remain, writes the New York Times.

City officials Bayanur said measures to prevent the plague would remain in place by the end of the year.

The bubonic plague is caused by the Yersinia pests, which is transmitted by the fleas infected through rodents.

The pneumonic plague is also caused by this bacterium and is the only form of plague that can be transmitted from person to person through breath, writes the American newspaper, adding that if the pneumonic plague is left untreated inevitably leads to death, while the bubonic plague, according to WHO, is fatal in 30 to 60 percent of cases untreated.

While China appears to have reduced the rate of coronary to close to zero, other infectious threats remain, the Associated Press points out, adding that besides the Coronavirus, who first registered in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year, China is facing the African fever.

China has largely eliminated the plague, but cases occur from time to time, especially among hunters who come in contact with bacteria carrying fleas, according to the AP, adding that the last known major infection was the pneumonic plague in 2009 when some people died in Tibet, Ziketan.

The bubonic plague is responsible for one of the worst epidemics in human history - the Black Death that killed some 50 million people throughout Africa, Asia and Europe in the XIV century - but has now been treated lightly, the BBC points out, adding that the plague could not possibly lead to an epidemic.

There have been several major epidemics since the Black Death in the Middle Ages, British public service stresses. In the 1665 Great Plague, about one fifth of London's population died as more than 12 million died during the 20th century infection in China and India.

The cases of bubonic plague are now rare, but there is a occasional outbreak of disease. In Madagascar, reports the BBC, there were more than 300 cases of illness in 2017. A study in the medical journal Lancet found that 30 people died.

Experts, as the BBC points out, say that unlike the XIV century, they now know how the plague is transmitted and how it is prevented, and that it can be effectively treated with antibiotics.