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More than 10,500 people have contracted brucellosis, an animal-based disease in northwest China, after the bacteria “escaped” from a biopharmaceutical laboratory that makes animal vaccines, officials said today.
The city of Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province in the north-west of the country, tested a total of 79,357 residents. To date, 1,604 people have been treated for the disease, local officials said, quoted by the official Global Times newspaper.
Brucellosis is a disease transmitted by livestock or animal products. It is generally not contagious among humans, but it can cause fever, headache, or joint pain.
A public laboratory in the city used a disinfectant that expired in the summer of 2019 in the production of brucellosis vaccines for animals, authorities explained.
Sterilization was therefore incomplete, and the bacteria were still present in the company’s gas emissions: the Lanzhou Biopharmaceutical Unit for Breeding Animals.
The contaminated gas spread through the air at the Veterinary Research Institute, where it infected nearly 200 people in December 2019.
The bacterium usually comes from sheep, cattle or pigs.
The authorization to manufacture brucellosis vaccines has been revoked by the laboratory. Patients will receive financial compensation, according to the Lanzhou authorities.
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