China dengue fever alert as man struck down on same day country tackles bubonic plague outbreak
DEADLY dengue fever has made a comeback in eastern China.
Victims of Dengue fever experience muscle pains, fever, vomiting and headaches, which usually leads to hospitalisation and sometimes death.
Young survivors have compared the often three-day stint in hospital to feeling like they had been "hit by a truck".
The illness, which is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, is currently also ravaging Singapore with 16 deaths and 15,273 cases recorded this year alone.
A person in the city of Guangde, eastern China, went down with dengue on Sunday, officials said.
Tests are being carried out by government officials to find out if anyone else in surrounding neighbourhoods has contracted the disease.
In a statement, state broadcaster CCTV said the patient has been in hospital since being diagnosed with dengue fever.
They had previously travelled to India, Myanmar and Pakistan.
BUBONIC PLAGUE IN MONGOLIA
The Chinese case was recorded on the same day as two brothers were found to have bubonic plague in Mongolia after eating marmot meat.
Pansoch Buyainbat, 27, and his brother, 17, are being treated in separate hospitals in Khovd province in western Mongolia.
Medics reported that the older brother is in a “critical” condition.
Urgent checks have been carried out on 146 people with whom they were in contact.
There are 500 potential contacts through those 146 who may also need to be tested.
Major security precautions have been put into operation in the area amid fears of a spread.
The plague is spread by fleas living on wild rodents including marmots.
It is the same strain that wiped out up to 60 per cent of Europe's population during the Black Death in the 14th century.
What is Bubonic Plague?
Bubonic plague is the same disease that wiped out over half of Europe in the 14th century.
The World Health Organisation describes plague symptoms as "flu-like", with one to seven days between incubation and the symptoms emerging.
Sufferers are likely to have painful lymph nodes, chills, fever, headaches, weakness and fatigue.
In bubonic sufferers, these inflamed lymph nodes may end up turning into pus-filled open sores.
Bubonic plague is fatal in 30-60 per cent of cases, while the pneumonic kind is always fatal, if left untreated.
There are three forms of plague infection: pneumonic plague, septicaemic plague and bubonic plague, the most common form.
Bubonic plague was known as the Black Death in medieval Europe, where an outbreak brought entire civilisations to their knees and decimated the world's population.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is "carefully" monitoring the case of bubonic plague and dengue in China.
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a UN press briefing in Geneva: "We are monitoring the outbreaks in China, we are watching that closely and in partnership with the Chinese authorities and Mongolian authorities.
"We are watching it [and] monitoring it carefully."
The bubonic plague, known as the "Black Death" in the Middle Ages, is a highly infectious and often fatal disease that is spread mostly by rodents.
Cases are not uncommon in China although they are becoming increasingly rare.
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