Key Points :
- Several thousand people in north-east China have tested positive for a bacterial disease called brucellosis.
- The Health Commission of Lanzhou , the capital city of Gansu Province announced that 3245 people have been affected.
- This disease is also called as Malta Fever or Mediterranean Fever.
- While producing Brusella vaccines for animal use, the factory used expired disinfectants and sanitizers which led to formation of contaminated waste gas that formed aerosols carrying the bacteria leaked into the air.
In a recent update by the authorities on Tuesday, they said –
Several thousand people in north-east China have tested positive for bacterial disease in an outbreak caused by a leak at a biopharmaceutical company last year .
The Health Commission of Lanzhou , the capital city of Gansu Province announced that 3245 people have been affected by the disease called brucellosis. As per the CNN reported, brucellosis is often caused by contact with livestock carrying the brusella. This outbreak began from a leak at the Zhongmu Lanzhou biological pharmaceutical factory, which occurred between late July to late August last year, according to the city’s Health Commission. Another 1,1401 people have also tested positive of the disease but there have been no fatalities reported, the city’s Health Commission said
In total, authorities have tested 21,847 people out of the city’s 2.9 million population.
The disease brucellosis is also known as
- Malta fever or
- Mediterranean fever can cause symptoms including headaches, muscle pain, fever and fatigue.
Some symptoms can turn chronic or never go away.
They include :
- arthritis
- swelling in certain organs
- Weight loss
- Joints and muscle pain
- Stomach pain and
- Cough
according to the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In such an outbreak,
Human-to-human transmission is extremely rare, according to the CDC. Instead, most people are infected by eating contaminated food or breathing in the bacteria — which seems to be the exact case in Lanzhou.
While producing Brucella vaccines for animal use, the factory used expired disinfectants and sanitizers — meaning not all bacteria were eradicated in the waste gas.
This waste contaminated gas formed aerosols that contained the bacteria — and leaked into the air, carried by the wind down to the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, where the outbreak first hit.
According to the Lanzhou Health Commission,
Within months after the outbreak, provincial and municipal officials launched an investigation into the leak at the factory. By January, authorities had revoked vaccine production licenses for the plant and withdrew product approval numbers for its two Brucellosis vaccines. In February, the factory issued a public apology and said it had “severely punished” eight people who were determined as responsible for the incident , ANI added.
To conclude,
A total of seven veterinary drug product approval numbers were also canceled in the factory.
