Bubonic plague outbreak sees medics board plane in Mongolia

BUBONIC PLAGUE outbreak sees medics board plane and quarantine passengers who flew from Mongolian region where man and his pregnant wife have died from the disease

  • Emergency workers intercepted the domestic flight at the airport in Ulaanbaatar
  • Fears of plague outbreak have grown after couple died from contaminated meat
  • 11 passengers were sent to hospital while others were examined at the airport

This is the alarming moment that paramedics in hazmat suits were forced to board a plane in Mongolia amid fears of a bubonic plague outbreak. 

Emergency workers intercepted the domestic flight at the airport in the capital Ulaanbaatar, after a husband and wife died of the contagious disease in the region where the flight originated.  

According to reports they had eaten contaminated meat from a marmot, a large squirrel. 

Eleven passengers from the west of the country were held at the airport and sent immediately for hospital checks while others were examined at the airport. 

A passenger watches from an aircraft seat as the paramedics go about their work

Alarming: Paramedics wearing hazmat suits board a flight in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, after an outbreak of bubonic plague in the region where the plane originated 

Intervention: The emergency workers in protective clothing stand on the tarmac at Ulaanbaatar airport following the feared outbreak of bubonic plague

Intervention: The emergency workers in protective clothing stand on the tarmac at Ulaanbaatar airport following the feared outbreak of bubonic plague 

Paramedics in anti-contamination suits boarded the flight from provincial outposts Bayan, Ulgii and Khovd as soon as it landed. 

Some 158 people have been put under intensive medical supervision in Bayan-Ulgii province after coming into contact directly or indirectly with the couple who died. 

Some frontier check points with Russia are reported to have been closed leading to foreign tourists being stranded in Mongolia.    

A man named Citizen T, aged 38, died on April 27 after hunting and eating marmot meat.

His pregnant wife, 37, died three days later, reported The Siberian Times, leaving their four children orphaned.  

Cause of the trouble: A Mongolian marmot, a type of large squirrel, is thought to have been the source of the outbreak after it was hunted and eaten by a man and his wife

Cause of the trouble: A Mongolian marmot, a type of large squirrel, is thought to have been the source of the outbreak after it was hunted and eaten by a man and his wife 

Outpost: The Ulgii district in Mongolia where some 158 people have been put under intensive medical supervision as authorities attempt to contain the plague outbreak

Outpost: The Ulgii district in Mongolia where some 158 people have been put under intensive medical supervision as authorities attempt to contain the plague outbreak 

Top medic Dr N. Tsogbadrakh said the plague had ‘affected the man’s stomach’ after he ate the meat and gave it to his wife. 

The bubonic plague can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organisation.

It is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is usually found in small mammals and their fleas.

The bacterium was linked to the Black Death which wiped out more than a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century and to subsequent plague outbreaks.  

The disease is now treatable with antibiotics but hundreds of people have died of it around the world in recent years.   

Since the 1990s, most human cases have occurred in Africa, according to world health bosses.  

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