Health & Medicine
Kyrgyzstan Boy Dies due to Bubonic Plague
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Aug 27, 2013 01:58 PM EDT
Health officials have found signs of the bubonic plague in a region of eastern Kyrgyzstan, according to various reports.
Reports have shown that a 15-year-old boy has died from the plague but an outbreak is unlikely. As of August 22, the country has been on high-alert since the discovery of his death.
Experts note that over 100 people, mostly relatives of the boy and medical staff, are now being quarantined for the problem. The government's office of Kyrgyzstan also informed 24.kg news agency that three other people from the Ak-Suu district of Kyrgyzstan have begun showing symptoms of the plague while under observation.
The child's death was confirmed by Kyrgyzstan's Health Minister Dinara Saginbayeva, but said there was no news of an additional outbreak.
"I can say in all certainty that there will be no plague epidemic. This is a localized outbreak," Saginbayeva said, via RIA Novosti.
What was once known as the "Black Death" killed close to 25 billion Europeans during the Middle ages who carried disease-carrying rodents, such as rats infected with the plague, and this problem still affects parts of Asia and Africa.
"We suspect that the patient was infected with the plague through the bite of a flea," Tolo Isakov, a ministry official who heads the sanitation department, said in Bishkek on Monday, according to Aljazeera.
It's predicted that a oriental rat flea possesses the bubonic plague and after biting an infected rodent, it passed the disease to humans. According to officials, the last recorded cases occurred in the area 30 years ago.
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First Posted: Aug 27, 2013 01:58 PM EDT
Health officials have found signs of the bubonic plague in a region of eastern Kyrgyzstan, according to various reports.
Reports have shown that a 15-year-old boy has died from the plague but an outbreak is unlikely. As of August 22, the country has been on high-alert since the discovery of his death.
Experts note that over 100 people, mostly relatives of the boy and medical staff, are now being quarantined for the problem. The government's office of Kyrgyzstan also informed 24.kg news agency that three other people from the Ak-Suu district of Kyrgyzstan have begun showing symptoms of the plague while under observation.
The child's death was confirmed by Kyrgyzstan's Health Minister Dinara Saginbayeva, but said there was no news of an additional outbreak.
"I can say in all certainty that there will be no plague epidemic. This is a localized outbreak," Saginbayeva said, via RIA Novosti.
What was once known as the "Black Death" killed close to 25 billion Europeans during the Middle ages who carried disease-carrying rodents, such as rats infected with the plague, and this problem still affects parts of Asia and Africa.
"We suspect that the patient was infected with the plague through the bite of a flea," Tolo Isakov, a ministry official who heads the sanitation department, said in Bishkek on Monday, according to Aljazeera.
It's predicted that a oriental rat flea possesses the bubonic plague and after biting an infected rodent, it passed the disease to humans. According to officials, the last recorded cases occurred in the area 30 years ago.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone