A 15-year-old boy died from bubonic plague on - the first ever Kyrgyzstan bubonic plague case to happen in the country over the past 30 years, leading to mandatory quarantines, medical testing, and stricter border containment, multiple local sources said on Tuesday.
The exact location where the boy - later identified as Tembirk Iskanov - got the Black Death-infected tick bite is not known as of late. However, health agencies did confirm that he got it from a flea bite while a local newspaper stated that the boy got sick after "eating a barbecued marmot" upon visiting his distant relatives in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan.
According to Agnece France-Press, the Kyrgyzstan bubonic plague incident led to the containment of three other residing in the same village where Isakunov allegedly contracted the disease, speculated to have contracted the Black Death disease as well.
On the other hand, Independent stated today that over 100 people were quarantined after the incident.
Local Health Official Tolo Isakov told The Independent that the authorities contained 105 people including doctors and medical practitioners who made contact with the Kyrgyzstan bubonic plague victim, adding that around 2,000 people were subjected to mandatory testing for the said disease, and pest-control agents were accelerated in the entire region in the hope of killing potential rodents and flea vectors.
The Guardian reported earlier that Kyrgyzstan's neighboring country Kazakhstan is also implementing safety control measures against "black death."
The bubonic plague, a bacterial infection commonly carried by rodent flea vectors, killed over 25 million people in Europe during its outbreak in the 14th century. The disease is manifested through the swelling of lymph nodes, termed "buboes", especially in the armpit and groin areas. "Black death" can only be treated if proper antibiotics are administered within the first 24 hours after contracting it.
World Health Organization Disease Expert Eric Bertherat told BBC News that the bubonic plague is very rare at the present time, noting that the 400 documented 2012 cases were recorded in Africa.
Additionally, The Independent stated in a recent report that sporadic cases of bubonic plague were recorded in Europe in the 19th century, and that only 12 people were documented to have died from the disease in Peru.
Nevertheless, Kyrgyzstan Health minister Dinara Saginbayeva said that the Kyrgyzstan bubonic plague case does not denote any epidemic in the country. "The form of the disease in the teenager is not conducive to a plague epidemic."
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