:A town of 10,000 people in north west China has been sealed off from the outside world after an outbreak of deadly pneumonic plague.
- The town of Ziketan in Qinghai Province has been quarantined after a dozen people were infected with the highly contagious lung disease.
- The outbreak has already claimed two lives. A herdsman died from the disease on Friday and his neighbour died on Sunday.
- Another 10 people, mostly relatives of the dead men, were undergoing treatment in an isolation hospital. A team of medical experts are being flown into the remote town.
- Health authorities are warning that anyone suffering from a cough or fever who has visited the town since the middle of last month should seek urgent medical attention.
- There are fears the disease may have spread before the town was sealed off.
- Pneumonic plague is easily transmitted through the air and can be passed from person to person by coughing. It is the same bacteria that occurs in bubonic plague.
- The Black Death killed more than 25 million people throughout western europe in the Middle Ages.
- According to the World Health Organisation, pneumonic plague is one of the deadliest infectious diseases and can kill within 24 hours of infection.
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