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A construction worker in Gansu Province died soon after he hunted, cooked and ate an infected marmot, the provincial health authority announced. The authority announced Tuesday that the man surnamed Wang suffered from a high fever and the lymph nodes under his left armpit were swollen. He was also shivering and suffered from fatigue after he ate the animal Saturday morning. He was rushed to the People's Hospital in the Aksai Kazakh autonomous county and died a few hours later. He was diagnosed with the bubonic plague. Bubonic plague is an infection that enters through the skin and travels through the lymphatics. It can be transmitted after one is bitten by rats, marmots or from eating infected animals. Wang, 41, from Minle county, Zhangye, Gansu, was one of the workers building a 120-kilometer long road from Dunhuang to Dangjinshan. He hunted a marmot, a large squirrel, for food near the construction site. A worker with the project's administrative office confirmed the case to the Global Times Wednesday but declined to give details. Calls to the person in charge of the project went unanswered Wednesday. The local health authority launched emergency response measures after the incident by sending experts to disinfecting the construction site.
"As of right now, none of those who had close contact with Wang shows any abnormal symptoms, and the plague is under effective control," the health authority said in a statement. A worker surnamed Sa from the health authority said the prevention of the marmot plague is one of their major tasks. Health officials have urged herdsmen, tourists and workers to get away from marmots and their resting place. They also urged residents to inform authorities if they spot any dead marmots. Whenever a case is discovered, people who have had close contact with the infected person should be isolated for observation for two weeks, and the animals within a certain region should be killed, she said. Some local residents said they were unaware of the plague. "We know little about the warnings from the authorities. I think I should know more about that. So next time when we take tourists around the city, we can give them some warning," Fu Ming, a travel agent in Dunhuang, told the Global Times. An oil explorer surnamed Li from the city said locals consider it a taboo to eat marmots. "We all know in childhood that marmots are poisonous, and people who eat them will die," he said. In a monthly newsletter issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Jiuquan, two of 19 marmots whose deaths were reported last month had the plague. Due to a fear of the plague, marmot hunting, sales and transportation are restricted or banned.
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