 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
Town in China sealed off after pneumonic plague kills two
Beijing (AFP) Aug 2, 2009 A town in a Tibetan area in northwest China has been sealed off after two of its residents died from pneumonic plague, the local government and state media said Sunday. Ziketan town in Qinghai province was put under collective quarantine Saturday when laboratory tests showed it had been struck by the highly virulent disease, the Qinghai health bureau said in a statement. A 32-year-old herdsman had died from the plague, while 11 others had been diagnosed with it, according to the statement. Late Sunday Xinhua, citing the local government, reported the dead man's 37-year-old neighbour had also died. Ziketan, which is located in the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, had enough supplies to get by on its own for the time being, the health bureau statement said, giving no indication of when the quarantine would be lifted. The health bureau urged people who had visited Ziketan on or after July 16 to seek immediate help if they developed coughing or fever. An official at the Ziketan health bureau contacted by AFP Sunday declined to give further details. Pneumonic plague spreads through the air, making it easier to contract than bubonic plague, which requires that a person is bitten by an infected flea. It is also more lethal, with a fatality rate of up to 100 percent if left untreated, compared with 60 percent for bubonic plague. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Epidemics on Earth - Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola
EU seeks swine flu plan before schools reopenBrussels (AFP) July 31, 2009 European Union nations struggled Friday to draw up a common strategy to confront swine flu before children return to school in September, increasing the risk the illness will spread. At a meeting in Brussels, EU health experts examined a British proposal to delay school re-openings until the end of September, to help buy time so vaccines and other responses can be prepared. Other ideas ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook