China's Ministry of Health has revised an emergency response
plan on the prevention of rat plague in line with the country's
public health emergency response plan after rampant rats attacked
flooded counties surrounding central China's Dongting Lake this
June.
The new plan, made public via the State Council, requires
relevant departments to set up a national plague emergency command
with clear duty division and close cooperation among different
agencies when facing an "extremely serious" rat plague
incident.
The plan classifies the plague into four categories -- extremely
serious, serious, moderate serious and ordinary – based on a
plague's location, type, infected case number, scope, tendency and
harm so as to enhance prompt reporting and control. It also
outlines logistic supports during plagues.
The rat plague in Dongting Lake began on June 23 and an
estimated 2 billion rats invaded 22 counties after their homes on
islands in the lake were flooded, causing six million yuan
(US$789,000) in losses.
Rats have also thrived in woodlands, partly due to global
warming, experts said. Efforts to develop farmland to grassland and
forests also provide favorable conditions for rats, which causes
fear that they may spread plague to people.
Rampant rats had caused damage to 1.4 million hectares of
woodlands by the end of 2006, a sharp increase from previous years,
statistics from the State Forestry Administration show.
Plague, a fatal bacterial disease transmitted by fleas from
infected rats, can be contracted through breathing in airborne
particles and through close contact with infected rodents.
The most common form, the bubonic plague, results in high fever,
delirium and swollen lymph nodes.
Plague outbreaks have killed about 200 million people in the
past 1,500 years. The most infamous epidemic, Europe's Black Death,
which started in 1347, killed 25 million people in Europe and 13
million in the Middle East and China in the period of five
years.
(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2007)