The Health Commission of Lanzhou city in China has confirmed the news of a bacterial outbreak in the country, caused by a leak at a biopharmaceutical company last year.

About 3,245 people have contracted the disease, while 1,401 have tested preliminarily positive. However, so far, no casualties have been reported, added the Health Commission.

In total, 21,847 people have been tested so far in Lanzhou city.

This infection is usually caused by drinking unpasteurized milk or by coming in direct contact with livestock. However, in this case, the condition was caused by inhaling the bacteria.

Zhongmu Lanzhour Biological Pharmaceutical Factory was making brucellosis vaccine for animals sometime around July to August last year. While producing the vaccine, it accidentally vented an aerosolized version of the Brucella bacteria into the air.

The accident was pronounced by the use of expired disinfectants and sanitizers, meaning not all bacteria were eradicated in the waste gas. This led to the spread of the bacterial disease across the surrounding area through the air.

Experts fear the disease can have more severe side effects, like inflammation of liver and spleen, respiratory issues, and lasting damage to the reproductive system, leading to infertility in men.

What is Brucellosis?

Brucellosis, also known as, Malta fever or Mediterranean fever is an infectious disease caused by a group of bacteria from the genus Brucella. These bacteria are known to infect both humans and animals like sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, and dogs, etc.

Symptoms of Brucellosis

The disease causes symptoms including headaches, muscle pain, fever, and fatigue. While these may subside over time, some symptoms can become chronic. According to the United States' Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the disease can cause arthritis or swell in organs.

However, CDC reiterated, human-to-human transmission is rare and most people are infected by eating contaminated food or breathing the bacteria.

Some common symptoms are:
Recurring Fever
Headache
Abdominal Pain
Join, muscle, and back pain
Fatigue
Chill
Sweats
Weight Loss
Appetite Loss
As per the CDC, these symptoms can last for prolonged periods making the treatment a long process as well.

How do people contract the disease?

The most common way to contract this bacterial infection is to eat or drink unpasteurized milk products. However, the bacteria can be inhaled from air and infect animals and humans alike.

These bacteria can also enter the human body through open wounds or mucous membranes.

Breastfeeding mothers can transmit the bacteria to their children; otherwise, human-to-human transmission is not reported yet.

The disease can be transmitted through blood transfusions as well; however, there are no reported cases of sexual transmission.

Complications of the disease

The infection affects almost all the parts of the body - from nervous system to heart. One of the severe complications of the disease is inflamed testicles leading to infertility in men.

Other possible side effects of the disease include - arthritis, endocarditis - infection of the inner lining of heart, encephalitis - inflammation of the brain, meningitis - inflammation of membranes surrounding the brain.

The mortality rate of the disease is about 2 percent.

Treatment and prevention of the infection

Brucellosis is treated using antibiotics like rifampin and doxycycline. Recovery from the illness can take anywhere around a few weeks to several months.

Some precautions would be to avoid unpasteurized dairy products and taking safety precautions such as wearing rubber gloves, gowns, aprons when handling animals. Regularly vaccinating animals and cooking meat properly is another preventive measure for the disease.

nobody just know this country problem! dropping fresh diseases like it's nothing

They better curtail this before it spread again, I no fit go lockdown again ooo

China again?. Partey after partey!