China: brucellosis outbreak hidden by authorities for a year, widespread / almost twice as infected – International

More than 6,000 people in Lanzhou city, the capital of northwest China’s Gansu province, have tested positive for brucellosis, the local government reported by Reuters and Xinhua.

The outbreak came after a bacterium was released last year from a laboratory of a biopharmaceutical company that makes animal vaccines, with Chinese authorities only providing public information on the outbreak in September this year.

The government has tested 55,725 city residents, of whom 6,620 have tested positive for brucellosis so far, the Lanzhou government said at a news conference, according to a report released Thursday by the Global Times.

The new figure shows nearly a doubling of cases – from 3,245 positive results as of September 14.

Brucellosis is a disease transmitted by animals or products of animal origin. It is not usually passed from person to person, but can cause fever, joint pain, and headache.

Some symptoms can become chronic and never go away. A public laboratory in the city used a disinfectant that expired in July-August 2019 to produce brucellosis vaccines for animals, Chinese authorities announced.

As a result, sterilization was incomplete and the bacteria were still present in the company’s emissions: the Lanzhou Biopharmaceutical Plant for Animal Husbandry.

The contaminated gas spread through the air to the nearby Veterinary Research Institute, where it infected nearly 200 people in December last year.

The Lanzhou Health Bureau said the bacteria generally came from sheep, cattle and pigs. The lab apologized this year and withdrew its authorization to produce brucellosis vaccines.

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