Brucellosis: Bacteria outbreak infects thousands after factory leak in China

After the coronavirus, a bacteria outbreak named brucellosis has invaded China. Several thousand people in northwest China have contracted a bacteria disease.

Sources said that the outbreak has been caused by a leak at a biopharmaceutical company last year.

According to the Health Commission of Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province, around 3,245 are infected with the bacteria disease.

Experts said that the bacteria brucellosis has been caused by livestock carrying the bacteria Brucella.

According to the international news source, the city’s Health Commission said that another 1,401 people have tested as preliminarily positive. No deaths have been reported. In total, authorities have tested 21,847 people out of the city’s 2.9 million population.

according to the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)., the disease called Malta fever can leave symptoms such as headaches, muscle pain, fever, and fatigue. Further symptoms can also be shown such as arthritis or swelling in certain organs.

CDC stated that human-to-human transmission is very rare. Most people have been infected by consuming contaminated food or breathing in bacteria. 

The outbreak has been caused due to a leak at the Zhongmu Lanzhou biological pharmaceutical factory, which happened last year. The city’s health commission said that the factory used expired disinfectants and sanitizers while making Brucella vaccines for animal use. Consequently, not all bacteria were removed from the waste gas.

That contaminated waste gas formed aerosols that contained the bacteria.

According to a Chinese news agency, People at the institute began reporting infections in November, and it quickly accelerated. By the end of December, at least 181 people at the institute had been infected with brucellosis.

The Lanzhou Health Commission said that provincial and municipal officials launched an investigation into the leak at the factory months after the outbreak.