Beijing: Another suspected disease Bubonic Plague case was reported on Saturday in a hospital in Bayannur in China. Northern China on Sunday sounded an alert after a suspected case of bubonic plague was reported, according to official media. Bayannur, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, announced a level III warning of plague prevention and control, state-run People’s Daily Online reported. The local health authority announced that the warning period will continue until the end of 2020.

Bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots. It can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“At present, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city. The two suspected cases of bubonic plague reported in Khovd province in western Mongolia have been confirmed by lab test results. State-run Xinhua news agency said on July 1.

As per the official sources, the confirmed cases are a 27-year-old resident and his 17-year-old brother, who are being treated at two separate hospitals in their province. The brothers ate marmot meat, the health official said, and warning people not to eat marmot meat. A total of 146 people who had contact with them have been isolated and treated at local hospitals, according to Narangerel. A couple died of bubonic plague in the western Mongolian province of Bayan-Ulgii last year after eating raw marmot meat.

The news of bubonic plague came after Chinese researchers issued an early warning over another potential pandemic caused by an influenza virus in pigs. Scientists from China Agricultural University, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutes detected a pig influenza virus bearing genotype 4 (G4), which is contagious among pigs and has the possibility of jumping to humans, as the G4 virus is able to bind with human cells, state-run Global Times reported last week.