Over 3000 test positive for a Bacterial Infection outbreak in Northwest China, reported the Chinese authorities on Tuesday. They said the spread of this bacterial disease is caused due to a leak at a biopharmaceutical company last year.
According to the Health Commission of Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province, the outbreak of this infection started from the leak at the Zhongmu Lanzhou biological pharmaceutical factory last year between late July and August. They also announced 3,245 people had contracted the disease brucellosis that is often caused by contact with livestock carrying the bacteria Brucella.
Around 1, 1401 other people have also tested positive for the disease, leading to fatalities, the Health Commission said.
This particular disease is also known as Malta fever or Mediterranean fever which happens in the Mediterranean countries. The common symptoms of this disease are headaches, muscle pain, fever, and fatigue.
Dr.Sushant Chabra, the HOD of emergency medical at Manipal Hospital, Delhi, said, ” Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that is generally caused by a bacteria from the brucella species, a disease which is acquired from the animals. Humans most commonly acquire this by consumption of unpasteurized milk, or soft cheese and butter.”
He added, “There can be complicated Brucellosis also, for that you need to take a treatment or antibiotic for six weeks. The serious condition can lead to the swelling of the brain layers that is called Meningitis, or can lead to inflammation of the heart muscles called Endocarditis and can lead to inflammation”
According to the United States` Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some of its symptoms can become chronic or never go away, like arthritis or swelling in certain organs, which is a concern. A total of 21,847 people have been tested out of the city’s 2.9 million populations, the authorities said.
The CDC said, it is not that contagious and has less chance of human to human transmission. The major reason for infecting this disease is because of eating a lot of contaminated food or breathing in the bacteria which is quite similar to COVID.
It is also reported that not all bacteria were eradicated in the waste gas in the factory as it kept on producing the Brucella vaccines for animal use, and used expired disinfectants and sanitizers.
And therefore this contaminated waste gas started to form aerosols that contained the bacteria which leaked into the air and was carried by the wind down to the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute that was the first place to be hit by this.
The Lanzhou Health Commission on Tuesday announced that around 11 public hospitals would provide free and regular treatments for infected patients.
Brucellosis had been very common in China in the 1980s even though its impact got reduced with the emergence of vaccines and other disease prevention control systems, but still, China has reported several brucellosis outbreaks around the world since the last few years.
Like some reports show in the year 2008, there was an outbreak that infected about 1,000 people in Bosnia because of the culling of sheep and other infected livestock.
According to the Lanzhou Health Commission, An investigation at the factory was launched after a few months of the outbreak by the municipal officials about the leak of the bacteria. And as a result by January the authorities came up with the production licenses of the vaccine.
Along with that a total of seven veterinary drug product approval numbers were also canceled in the factory.
It is reported that the factory came up with a public apology statement saying “they severely punished” eight people who were dogged as responsible for the incident”
