A reported outbreak of bubonic plague in Inner Mongolia has authorities as well as ordinary people running scared, according to one local Catholic in the north China region.
Jacob Zhang from Hohhot the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said he recently returned from Bayannaoer, a prefecture-level city near Xiliin Gol League where two cases of pneumonic plague and one case of bubonic plague were reported last month.
The area is situated in a desert where many herders live, Zhang said.
“This outbreak has hit them hard, and the local government’s response has surpassed that of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) crisis. Just the mention of a rat sends a shiver down people’s spines,” he told LICAS News.
“In recent years, there has been an increasing number of rats and they can be seen everywhere. Now the government tells us the rats are carrying plague and are warn us to stay away from them, which really make us scared because we come across them all the time,” Zhang said.
On Nov. 12, Chaoyang District People’s Government of Beijing announced on its official website that two people from Xilingol League were diagnosed with pneumonic plague.
A few days later a 55-year-old male quarry worker from the same area was diagnosed with the bubonic form of the plague, which mainly infects the lymph nodes, after supposedly skinning and eating a rabbit.
Bubonic plague was responsible for one of the worst pandemics in history, killing millions in Eurasia during the 14th century. It became known as the Black Death and was spread by fleas preying on animals such as rats and rabbits.
The recent cases in Inner Mongolia were not linked, according to experts.
The two patients with pneumonic plague, which damages the lungs, were transferred from a hospital in Inner Mongolia to another in Beijing for treatment.
They were a couple of herders originally from Bayannaoer, who were not that well known among local people, Zhang said.
“It wasn’t until government officials came to seal off their home and the hospital they were taken to that people realized something serious was going on.”
He went on to say that in the beginning, people did not think it such a big issue.
It was only after reading the news, “we knew how potentially deadly the situation was and then many people who had been in contact with the couple flocked to the hospital to be quarantined and checked out.”
An indication of how worried the authorities are about the outbreak is the efforts being taken to suppress it, Zhang said.
“The government has told us not to contact outsiders, especially not to give media interviews,” he said, adding that there is a serious lack of official information and various rumors were being spread on the internet.
Journalists say they have met with a wall of silence over the plague outbreak.
“We’ve not been free to interview or seek official information as to how many people have been infected, which hospitals have treated infected persons, which places have been sealed off. We’re unable to obtain stuff like this,” said one mainland journalist who would only give LICAS News a pseudonym — Jiang Lai.
“We’ve only have hearsays which we are struggling to verify,” he added.
“Even if we think we can follow something up, we not only fail to obtain first-hand information, but we are also prevented from doing so by our bosses, who tell us to wait for press releases,” he told LICAS News.
This suppression of information suggests something more sinister is going on, according to Ami Yan, another seasoned journalist.
His first impression was that the outbreak may not be isolated. That there must be something more shocking behind it all.
“The media has not fully reported on this incident, and many truths that are worth exploring have not been disclosed,” Ami told LICAS News about reports that have emerged so far.
He said he asked a retired senior propaganda official for his opinion on the media reports about the outbreak. He said the former official only warned him that “the situation was complicated and highly confidential.”
‘More serious’
Although there have been reported outbreaks in the past, this outbreak could be more serious than what authorities are letting on, according to a health official who only identified himself as Mr. Chen.
Speaking about attempts to limit information about the outbreak he said, “this time the plague could be more contagious and more difficult to cure.”
“General epidemic prevention alone might not be able to solve the problem. Looking at the current prevention measures, it’s like scratching an itch from outside one’s boot,” he told LICAS News.
The official who said he has been working in epidemic prevention in Henan for over 20 years suggested the fatality rate could be extremely high among those infected with the plague this time.
“At present, the mainland’s response has been basically going through the formalities. An outbreak of such a serious disease such as shouldn’t have happened.”