A second man has died of pneumonic plague and 10 people are infected in a north-western Chinese town that authorities have sealed off to avoid the spread of the infectious lung disease.
Officials have placed Ziketan and the surrounding part of Qinghai province in quarantine. The local health bureau has urged anyone with a cough or a fever who has visited the town of 10,000 since mid-July to seek treatment.
The lung disease is caused by the same bacterium as bubonic plague. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is the most virulent and least common form of plague, capable of killing sufferers within 24 hours of infection. It spreads through the air and can be passed from person to person by coughing.
The organisation's
China office said it was in close contact with health authorities and that the measures taken to contain and treat the sickness were appropriate. China has experienced such outbreaks before.
"This is not new," Beijing-based WHO spokeswoman Vivian Tan told Reuters. "There have been sporadic cases reported [in China] over the years. We're not surprised that it's come up. We're in constant contact with the authorities to make sure things are under control."
She said the fact that the outbreak had occurred in a remote part of the country "should help to mitigate" the impact.
China reported the outbreak to the organisation on Saturday.
The state news agency, Xinhua, said the second victim, identified only as 37-year-old Danzin, was a neighbour of the first fatality, a 32-year-old herdsman who has not been named.
The other sufferers, mostly relatives of the first man to die, are being treated in isolation in hospital.
In 2004, eight villagers in Qinghai province died of plague. Most were infected after killing or eating wild marmots, small mammals that live in the grasslands of China's north-west and Mongolia.
A food seller in Ziketan, who gave his surname as Han, told the Associated Press the authorities had said homes and shops should be disinfected and residents should wear masks when they went out. He said 80% of shops in the town were closed and prices of disinfectants and some vegetables had tripled.
"People are so scared. There are few people on the streets," Han said by telephone. "There are police guarding the quarantine centre at the township hospital but not on the streets."
The situation in Ziketan was stable, said an official at the local disease control centre, adding that the measures taken were "scientific, orderly, effective and in accordance with the law".
Another resident said officials had distributed flyers and made TV and radio announcements on how to prevent infection. She said police checkpoints were set up in a 17-mile radius around Ziketan, and residents were not allowed to leave.
