Stay away from the groundhogs! Stay away from the groundhogs! Stay away from the groundhogs!

Recently, an infuriating piece of news has been circulating on various platforms. The gist is that a blogger bought a live groundhog online through some unknown channel because he thought groundhogs were cute, and finally released it under pressure.

The picture is taken from Weibo, swipe left to see more

This incident also caused the public to worry about the plague. Fortunately, there is new news that the blogger said he has realized his mistake, apologized and sent the marmot back, and there was no behavior of privately releasing it.

Image from NetEase Finance Weibo

Fortunately, a large number of comments condemned the blogger, and popularized the fact that groundhogs generally refer to marmots, which may carry plague and other diseases, and suggested that the blogger call the police or ask professionals to deal with it. This shows that after years of popularization, the public has become more aware of the harm of wild marmots and plague, and their vigilance has increased.

The plague was indeed notorious in history, causing the deaths of tens of millions of people, but now people have a full understanding of the pathogens, transmission routes, prevention methods, symptoms after infection and treatment of the plague. With modern medical technology and the continuous improvement of public health, the risk of ordinary people encountering the plague in their daily lives in my country is minimal. However, there are still some people who "seek death" and always engage in high-risk behaviors that may lead to the plague. Today we will talk about it in detail.

What are the dangers of plague?

Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, and its main host is rodents (including marmots). Medium-sized carnivores such as coyotes and wild cats may also be infected by preying on rodents or coming into contact with fleas.

According to the "Plague Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (2023 Edition)", when people are bitten by infected fleas or have direct contact with infected animals, the plague bacteria invade the human body through bites or damaged skin and mucous membranes, spread through the lymphatic system, and multiply in macrophages, causing swelling, congestion, and necrosis of the lymph nodes, causing hemorrhagic necrotizing lymphadenitis, which manifests as bubonic plague.

Plague bacteria enter the blood through the lymphatic circulation, causing bacteremia and developing into septicemic plague; plague bacteria enter the lungs, causing secondary pneumonic plague. If droplets or aerosols containing plague bacteria are inhaled, primary pneumonic plague will occur. Plague bacteria can also break through the blood-brain barrier and cause meningitis plague. The incubation period of plague is generally 1 to 6 days, mostly 2 to 3 days, and sometimes up to 8 to 9 days. According to WHO data, if left untreated, the mortality rate of plague can reach 30% to 100%, depending on the type.

In the past, plague caused a large number of deaths, precisely because of its high mortality rate. In addition, people did not have enough knowledge about plague in the past. They did not know what the pathogen was, nor did they know how to isolate and prevent it. Some even regarded plague as a "divine punishment" from heaven, which led to the fact that plague could not be effectively controlled.

On the other hand, there were no effective antibiotics or other support measures at that time. All these made the plague enough to destroy cities and even countries in the past. It is estimated that the famous "Black Death" caused the loss of 30% of the population in Europe at that time. The famous writer Giovanni Boccaccio once described the tragedy caused by the plague in his famous book "The Decameron":

Many people died on the road during the day and at night. Many people died at home, and the neighbors didn't know they were dead until their bodies rotted and smelled bad.

The city was littered with corpses. If the living people nearby could find porters, they would ask them to help carry the corpses out and place them at the gate. If they couldn't find porters, they would do it themselves. They did this not out of compassion, but because they were afraid that the rotting corpses would threaten their survival. Every day at dawn, the doorways of every household were filled with corpses. These corpses were placed on biers and carried out. If biers were not available, they were carried on wooden boards.

There were often two or three bodies on one bier. It was common to see a couple, a father and son, or two or three brothers on the same bier.

Do we still need to worry about plague today?

It can now be said that for people living in non-epidemic areas, we don’t have to worry about the threat of plague in our daily lives. Because the biggest fear of infectious diseases is the unknown. Now we know a lot about plague. We not only know what the pathogen that causes plague is, but also know the transmission mechanism of plague very well, so we can do a good job of isolation and prevention and control efficiently. Human life and the progress of infrastructure and public health have also made rats and fleas that were everywhere in the past uncommon (especially in cities).

Moreover, plague is a bacterial infectious disease. Many antibiotics (such as streptomycin) can kill plague bacteria. As long as the patient seeks medical treatment in time and receives standardized treatment, it can be effectively cured and it is unlikely that the patient will die from it. Suspected contacts can also avoid the disease by taking preventive medication.

Because of this, plague, which ranks first among Class A infectious diseases in my country, has gradually faded out of our daily lives, and we may only see sporadic reports about the plague. According to the National Overview of Notifiable Infectious Diseases in China released by the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, we can see that in the fourth quarter of 2024, the number of cases and deaths from plague were both 0.

From the website of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention www.ndcpa.gov.cn

However, don't underestimate the plague. Although it is no longer large-scale in our country, it does not mean that the plague cannot harm some careless people.

Stay away from groundhogs!

Although it is called "plague", as mentioned above, many animals may carry plague bacteria, including groundhogs, also known as marmots. And because of their round and cute appearance, marmots are loved by some tourists who are unaware of the truth, and they even try to get close to them when they meet them in the wild.

Video of feeding marmots on the Internet

But we should warn you that the bite of infected fleas is the main way plague is spread, and if you interact closely with wild marmots, there is a possibility that a flea will "smuggle" in and bite you without you noticing. If it happens to be carrying plague bacteria, the consequences will be disastrous. Moreover, many areas where marmots are distributed overlap with plague foci, so the risks involved can be imagined.

In addition to not provoking live marmots, you must stay away from dead animals and do not observe or even rummage through them out of curiosity. This is because these animals may have died of disease (including plague), and according to the habit of fleas, when the host dies and the body temperature drops, they will immediately leave the dead host and look for a new host. If you get too close, you may be bitten by fleas and contract diseases.

Here we recommend that when traveling to epidemic areas, you should try to wear long sleeves and long pants, take measures to prevent insects and fleas, keep a distance from local wild animals, and pay close attention to your physical condition. If you experience abnormal symptoms such as fever, swollen lymph nodes, pain, cough, and hemoptysis, you should seek medical attention immediately and tell your doctor where you have traveled to facilitate diagnosis.

If you think deeply about this farce of buying marmots, is it legal to keep and trade marmots as pets? Where did the seller get the marmots? Are the marmots sick? Have they really been inspected and quarantined? If all these important questions have not been answered convincingly, it is neither rational nor safe to buy marmots as pets on impulse.

Planning and production

Author: Science Popularization China New Media

Reviewer: Li Dongzeng, Chief Physician, Department of Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital