Four-year-old girl dies of bubonic plague

A four-year-old girl died of bubonic plague on Saturday in the south-central Kazakh province of Kzyl-Orda, while another 27 people who had been in contact with her were now under treatment. "We have a confirmed diagnosis [of plague] regarding the dead child - a girl born in 1999, who had lived in the Aral District of the Kzyl-Orda Province and passed away on 16 August," Baurzhan Bayserkin, the deputy head of the epidemiological inspection agency of the Kazakh health ministry, told IRIN from the capital, Astana, on Monday. Bayserkin explained that the disease had been caused by the bite of a flea carrying the plague bacteria, noting that the child had lived in the village of Shomysh in Kzyl-Orda Province, which was located in a natural reservoir of the disease. "Twenty-seven people have been in contact with her, including people where she resided, as well as those who were in contact with her before she reached the medical unit, and medical staff that was involved in examining her," the health official said, adding that no quarantine (in the region) would be announced, because the case had been one of bubonic plague, which was not as dangerous as the pneumonic form of the disease. According to Bayserkin, efforts were being made to tackle the issue, with resources from local budgets being allocated in an effort to ensure preventive treatment of those with whom the child had been in contact, adding that steps would also be taken to disinfect the village and kill all its rats, which normally host fleas. Additionally, the local population, mainly cattle breeders and small-scale farmers, would be inoculated against plague, he added. The health official maintained that the situation on the ground was under control, while comprehensive epidemiological and preventive measures were being taken, adding that there had been no other cases of plague. Three people contracted bubonic plague in the western Kazakh province of Mangistau at the end of July by way of contact with the meat of an infected camel. Plague is an infectious disease of animals and humans caused by the bacterium named Yersinia pestis. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of a flea carrying the bacterium or by handling an infected animal. Millions of people in Europe died from plague in the Middle Ages, when homes and places of work were infested by flea-infested rats. Recent outbreaks have shown that plague may reoccur in areas that have long remained free of the disease. Untreated, mortality - particularly from pneumonic plague - may reach high levels. When rapidly diagnosed and promptly treated, plague may be successfully managed with antibiotics such as streptomycin and tetracycline, reducing mortality from 60 percent to less than 15 percent.