(CNN) — A 15-year-old boy died of bubonic plague in western Mongolia, according to government health officials.
The young man became infected after hunting and eating groundhog meat, according to Dorj Narangerel, spokesman for the Mongolian Ministry of Health. He died on Sunday.
Groundhogs are large ground squirrels, a type of rodent, which have historically been associated with outbreaks of plagues in the region.
Evidence confirmed that the teenager had contracted the bubonic plague and the authorities imposed quarantine measures in the Tugrug district of Gobi-Altai province.
The quarantine, which started on Sunday, will run until Saturday, and authorities have already isolated 15 people who came into contact with the teenager. They are all in good health.
Rodents are the main vector of transmission of plague from animals to humans, but the disease can also be transmitted through flea bites or from person to person.
The disease killed about 50 million people in Europe during the black plague pandemic in the Middle Ages, but modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death if administered quickly enough.
Groundhogs are large ground squirrels, a type of rodent, which have historically been associated with outbreaks of plagues in the region.
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Bubonic plague, which is one of the three forms of plague, causes pain and swelling of the lymph nodes, as well as fever, chills, and cough.
Mongolia has recorded 692 groundhog plague cases from 1928 to 2018. Of these, 513 died from the disease, equivalent to a death rate of just over 74%.
Earlier this month, two other people tested positive for bubonic plague in neighboring Khovd province, prompting warnings from officials at Russia.
Officials of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and Food They told the citizens of the border area not to hunt groundhogs or eat groundhog meat, and that they take preventive measures against insect bites.
The Russian embassy in Mongolia quoted Sergei Diorditsu, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Mongolia, who reportedly said the province has seasonal outbreaks of the plague, according to Russian state-run media outlet RIA Novosti.
“There are natural outbreaks of plague in Mongolia and the disease is transmitted by (marmots) tarbagans (Mongolian marmots),” the embassy said.
“The problem is that local residents, despite all the prohibitions and recommendations of the local authorities, continue to hunt and eat them, since it is a local delicacy,” he added.
The authorities of the region china Mongolian officials also confirmed a case of the plague in the northwestern city of Bayannur on July 7, according to the state agency for news Xinhua.
In 2019, a couple in Mongolia died after eating a raw groundhog kidney, leading to a quarantine that left several tourists stranded in the region.
Last week, a squirrel in the US state of Colorado tested positive for the plague.
U.S reports up to a few dozen cases each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two people died in Colorado from the plague in 2015.
The plague has recently returned, and the WHO has listed it as a re-emerging disease.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 people contract plague each year, according to the WHO, but that estimate does not take into account unreported cases.
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