China's actions against the pneumonic plague in the northwestern Qinghai Province are effective and the disease is unlikely to spread from the epidemic center, experts from the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.

Health authorities in Qinghai reacted promptly to the plague and found out the chain of disease transmission in a short time, which is the key of the effective control, said Professor Liang Wannian, deputy director of the Emergency Office of the Ministry of Health, in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Wednesday.

The local government has sealed off 3,500 square km centred around the Ziketan Township, with a population of 10,000, and established 23 quarantine stations working around the clock.

"There is no need to worry about the infection if you travel to Qinghai, not to speak of panic," said Liang.

No other infections were found except for the 12 patients in Ziketan who were quarantined on July 31, three of whom died and one was in critical condition as of Tuesday, said Dong Fukui, deputy government chief of Hainan prefecture that administers Ziketan.

The quarantined patients are the relatives of the first dead patient and local doctors, added Dong.

More than 140 epidemic-prevention professionals from the Ministry of Health and the provincial-level institutions are working in the area to control the plague.

Vice Minister of Health Yin Li led an expert team to Hainan Prefecture on July 31.

Authorities published the status of the plague everyday, which made local people well informed and helped contain the disease. More than 40,000 brochures and leaflets on pneumonic plague along with 400 CDs have been distributed in the area.

The sparse population of the prefecture also contributed to preventing the plague from spreading.

Ziketan is 200 km away from the provincial capital city of Xining and Qinghai Lake, a major tourist spot in the province.

Wang Hu, chief of Qinghai Provincial Disease Control Bureau, said the plague is under control when all the infected are quarantined, because the disease spread through infectious respiratory secretions within a radius of three meters.

Locals showed confidence in the control of the plague.

"Our life is not disturbed. My family does business and goes to work as usual," said a vendor in Gonghe County, 140 km away from Ziketan.

Waitresses in a hotel in the prefecture said their lives were as usual.

Pneumonic plague exists in 58 countries including China, said Cong Xianbin, an expert with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Millions were killed by the disease annually before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, but there were only one or two cases in the past three years and the fatality rate has dropped significantly, Cong said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2009)