This week, Chinese authorities reported another local outbreak involving over 3,000 people with a disease known as Malta fever, Mediterranean fever, or brucellosis. The bacterial disease was traced back to the biopharmaceutical company called Zhonmu Langzhou in Gansu, China.
Brucellosis is typically found in livestock carrying the bacteria brucella. Brucella melitensis causes one of the most commonly found zoonotic diseases around the world. A study in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases reported cases of the disease in China between 2005 and 2010.
The authors reported that the pathogen can come from "infected animals or by consuming unpasteurized and unboiled milk or fresh cheese." Clinical symptoms include fever, arthritis, encephalitis, and asthenia or physical weakness.
2005-2010 Outbreak in China
In 2005, more than 18,000 cases of the disease were reported across the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Heibei, Jilin, and 15 others. By 2010, there had been a total of 155,979 cases of brucellosis.
The highest number of cases were associated with agricultural provinces. According to China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main sources of the bacteria were pigs, cattle, and goats. Infectious could have spread rapidly due to livestock trading and movement of people between northern and southern provinces.
Transmission between people is rare, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so humans contract the disease by eating contaminated food. The bacteria can also be breathed in, which was likely the case in Lanzhou, Gansu. Last year around July or August, the local Health Commission reported that there was a leak in the factory while producing vaccines for livestock.
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Brucellosis Leak from Contaminated Aerosols
The company used expired sanitizers and disinfectants, failing to properly get rid of the bacteria in the waste gas. The gas became contaminated, forming infected aerosols which then leaked into the air. Initially, 181 people from the institute were infected with the disease as of December last year.
As it spread in the city air, faculty and students from Lanzhou also became infected. A few months after the initial outbreak, some lab mice from the institute tested positive for the bacteria, infecting two students who were researching with mice. The contaminated aerosols even reached north towards Heilongjiang province, where 13 positive cases came from workers in a veterinarian institute last year.
Months later, the plant's vaccine production of licenses was revoked by the Lanzhou Health Commission. Also, approval for two Brucellosis vaccines for animals and seven veterinary drug products were withdrawn and canceled in the factory. Eight people who were believed to be responsible for the incident were punished, according to the company, when they issued a public apology.
The Health Commission also reported that some of the local public hospitals will be offering free checkups for those infected with the bacterial disease by October. The factory also said that they would contribute to the compensation program for those who tested positive with brucellosis.
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