BLACK DEATH - China seals off entire city

The Black Death Returns

• Symptoms usually appear between two and five days after exposure to the bacteria. They include gangrene of the extremities such as toes, fingers, lips and tip of the nose; fever; muscle cramps; seizures; lymph gland swelling.
• Other potential symptoms include heavy breathing, continuous vomiting of blood, aching limbs and extreme pain, usually caused by the decay of the skin while the person is still alive. Without treatment the plague kills around two thirds of infected humans within four days.  (Daily Mail)

A Chinese city has been sealed off and 151 people have been placed in quarantine since last week after a man died of bubonic plague, state media said.

The 30,000 residents of Yumen, in the north-western province of Gansu, are not being allowed to leave, and police at roadblocks on the perimeter of the city are telling motorists to find alternative routes, China Central Television (CCTV) said.

A 38-year-old man died last Wednesday, the report said, after he had been in contact with a dead marmot, a small furry animal related to the squirrel. No further plague cases have been reported says The Guardian.

CCTV said officials were not allowing anyone to leave. The China Daily newspaper said four quarantine sectors had been set up in the city.

"The city has enough rice, flour and oil to supply all its residents for up to one month," CCTV added.
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"Local residents and those in quarantine are all in stable condition." No further cases have been reported.

Bubonic plague is a bacterial infection best known for the Black Death, a virulent epidemic that killed tens of millions of people in 14th-century Europe. Primarily an animal illness, it is extremely rare in humans.

The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) says modern antibiotics are effective in treating plague, but that without prompt treatment the disease can cause serious illness or death.

The Black Death of the Roman Empire
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Dead?  -  You Must Still Pay Taxes.
"When pestilence swept through the whole known world and notably the Roman Empire, wiping out most of the farming community and of necessity leaving a trail of desolation in its wake, Justinian showed no mercy towards the ruined freeholders. Even then, he did not refrain from demanding the annual tax, not only the amount at which he assessed each individual, but also the amount for which his deceased neighbors were liable."
Procopius
Secret History
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The Black Death of the Roman Empire