Plague cases no cause for panic

News that two people from Inner Mongolia have been diagnosed with pneumonic plague, which was confirmed by Beijing's local health authorities on Tuesday, has drawn a lot of public attention and even sparked panic. Which is not surprising, given the high mortality rate of the highly contagious disease, whose symptoms include fever, shortness of breath, chest pain and cough.

Pneumonic plague can spread quickly from person to person via infectious cough droplets. And without early treatment patients will die, some within 36 hours. Thus it is considered one of the most dangerous infectious diseases by health authorities. An outbreak in Qinghai province a decade ago caused several deaths and over a dozen infections, leading to thousands of people being quarantined.

But while the news seems scary, the outbreak is manageable.