A Chinese man, who had a contact history with cattle, sheep, and byproducts of these animals, has contracted anthrax pneumonia in China's Hebei Province's Chengde city, news agency PTI reported on Monday.
The patient was moved to Beijing by ambulance five days ago, after he showed symptoms of the disease and has now been put in quarantine and is under treatment, the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Beijing CDC) said, reported state-run Global Times.
Anthrax is caused by skin contact with the infected animals or humans and the disease leads to blisters and skin necrosis, the Beijing CDC said. The disease is common among cattle and sheep while humans generally get infected after coming in close contact with the sick animals or after the consumption of contaminated products.
Anthrax can be transmitted from one human to another, however, it is not as infectious as the common flu or COVID-19. Anthrax pneumonia happens when someone inhales dust having bacillus anthracis, while people get intestinal anthrax by eating contaminated food, generally meats. The symptoms of the latter include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, PTI reported.
The case of anthrax pneumonia comes as Beijing banned people to travel to other provinces from the Chinese capital as China is battling the worst outbreak in recent times driven by the Delta variant of coronavirus.
To control the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, which was first detected in India last year, Beijing has implemented a range of measures to manage people returning from regions where the infections rate is high. The measures also include restrictions on people's purchase of railway tickets and air services.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in China, December 2019, the nation has reported 105,904 confirmed infections and 4,848 deaths from the virus.
