Pneumonic Plague Outbreak in China
Two people have died, a town of 10,000 is under quarantine, and the area within a 17-mile radius around it has been sealed to contain a pneumonic plague outbreak:
Chinese authorities have put a whole town in quarantine after an outbreak of horrifying pneumonic plague.
Two people have died from the highly contagious disease, an even more powerful brother of The Black Death – the bubonic plague believed to have wiped out a quarter of the population of Europe in the 14th Century.
Pneumonic plague is one of the most virulent and deadly diseases on earth, usually fatal within 24 hours.
It attacks the lungs and kills nearly everyone who catches it unless they get rapid treatment with antibiotics.
A dozen people in the stricken town of Ziketan have so far been infected. The disease spreads fast and is passed from person to person by coughing.
Authorities in northwest China have sealed off the remote town of 10,000 people and begun a treatment and quarantine programme.
Residents are terrified, shops have been shuttered, homes disinfected, face masks distributed, there has been panic buying and streets are deserted, witnesses reported.
The World Health Organisation said it was in close contact with Chinese health authorities and that measures taken so far were appropriate.
It looks serious, but the Chinese regime isn’t limited by anything in its choice of means to keep the disease from spreading. People are just worker ants for them.
UPDATE: According to a reader, the report of plague is a cover-up for the real events – a political uprising in the sealed-off town and the government’s crackdown, and the two reported plague victims are the leaders of the uprising killed by government forces. Well, dissent is like plague for China’s Communist rulers.
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October 30th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
If you have a chance to talk to Chinese national especially one who is familiar with Chinese government media. This report of plague and the deaths are cover-up as the town is a political dissident and the government is stopping people from the town from speaking out against the government. It also stops the town from getting reporters into them. The 2 dead are the leaders of the uprising. Note that the region of China also foster many of the Chinese minority races and fractions, which get severe discrimination by the ruling ethic race, which are the Han.
Keep up the independent work, but like US government many reports have alternate truth
October 31st, 2009 at 4:16 am
Quarantine a village and declare bubonic plague to get rid of two local leaders? Does not sound very plausible to me. Not an Asian, but spent the last 6 years here, and we don’t see too much of that ‘holly wood evil mastermind’ stuff here. It’s not necessary, because traditional Asian values accept direct power, and decry individualism and challenge of authority.
The Chinese might be more openly hostile to political opposition then the west, but the prison statistics reveal a totally different picture. US has 200 000 official intelligence workers, taking care of the political opposition, and over 200 000 working in the lobbying industry, which the Chinese call legal corruption.
October 31st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
unkLe_p,
You believe official Chinese prison statistics?
And I’d like to see the source of “US has 200 000 official intelligence workers, taking care of the political opposition”.
October 31st, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Just wondering – if this plague is real – have any studies been done on whether those infected have had the H1N1 shot or not?
If a study has been done, please reply.