Plague cases no cause for panic

News that two people from Inner Mongolia have been diagnosed with pneumonic plague, which was confirmed by Beijing’s local health authorities on Tuesday, has drawn a lot of public attention and even sparked panic. Which is not surprising, given the high mortality rate of the highly contagious disease, whose symptoms include fever, shortness of breath, chest pain and cough.

Pneumonic plague can spread quickly from person to person via infectious cough droplets. And without early treatment patients will die, some within 36 hours. Thus it is considered one of the most dangerous infectious diseases by health authorities. An outbreak in Qinghai province a decade ago caused several deaths and over a dozen infections, leading to thousands of people being quarantined.

But while the news seems scary, the outbreak is manageable.

The Beijing health authorities have released a statement about the two patients, saying they are receiving “proper treatment” at a medical institution in Chaoyang district, and that relevant disease prevention and control measures have been taken.

But more information is needed to help allay people’s fears — such as when and how the two patients were infected, what measures were taken during their transfer to Beijing from their hometown in XilinGol League about a week ago, and how many people might have been exposed to the risk of infection before the patients were finally diagnosed and isolated. Such information would help prevent rumors spreading.

That said, there is no need for people to panic. According to the World Health Organization, only 3,248 pneumonic cases were reported worldwide from 2010 to 2015, of which 584 were fatal. To put that in perspective, 250,000 to 500,000 people are killed by seasonal flu each year. And recovery rates for pneumonic plague are high if the infection is detected and treated in time.

Nonetheless there is no such thing as over-precaution when it comes to how to deal with the disease and its implications. The plague is still associated with the Black Death that swept across Europe in the 14th century killing an estimated more than 50 million people. Nowadays, plague is easily treated with antibiotics and the use of standard precautions to prevent infection. But to prevent scaremongering and the spread of rumors, the government must make it a priority to ensure transparency and timely release all related information during the whole prevention and control process. Any delay or lapse on the part of relevant departments in dealing with the emergency will likely allow rumormongers to spread panic among the public. This is a lesson that should have been well learned during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in China in 2003.

People should also play their part in managing the outbreak by remaining calm and exercising common sense rather than heeding hearsay.