Deadly Pneumonic Plague Spreading? Hong Kong Alert, Rumors of Deaths Among China’s Patients & Medics

The Black Death swept through Europe in the Middle Ages. The death of a plague researcher in Russia has now sparked fears worldwide. Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection, known for its quick and effective response, issued an alert on October 12. It said it had taken four measures to prevent imported cases. The measures include stronger health monitoring at the airport, reminders for travellers to report their travel history, testing for travellers with symptoms and closer coordination with the airport and airlines. Airlines were also urged to remind crews to strictly follow existing prevention procedures if passengers have a fever or other symptoms. The Center for Health Protection also sent letters to doctors and hospitals across Hong Kong, urging medical staff to stay alert and to step up monitoring. Doctors must immediately notify the center if a patient has unexplained pneumonia or visited Irkutsk Oblast in Russia within 14 days before symptoms began. Further testing can then be arranged. The fears began after a 28-year-old female employee at the Siberian and Far Eastern Anti-Plague Research Institute in Irkutsk died of pneumonia of an unknown cause on October 2. Russian authorities said thousands of tests found no dangerous pathogens and denied there was a second case. The World Health Organization said on October 10 that it had found no evidence of ongoing transmission. On the same day the WHO issued its statement, the Disease Control Center in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, released a plague prevention advisory. It said the city had recorded no human plague cases since 1927. Recent monitoring had found no plague among rodents, making an outbreak unlikely. However, Hulunbuir is a historic natural plague area near the Russian Far East. The advisory urged people arriving from plague-affected areas in Russia to monitor their health and seek immediate care if symptoms appeared. Richard Zhuang Hao commented sarcastically on X, By the time a child says he needs to poop, he may already have done it in his pants. Mr. Z, an analyst who follows mainland Chinese issues, said the advisory from Inner Mongolia's disease control authorities was actually a signal that plague had already broken out locally. He said they could not state it openly without approval from the central government. In the CCP's official language, he said, this amounted to an outbreak notification. Early on October 11, Beijing time, the overseas blogger Luo Xiang shared an account from an insider at the hospital affiliated with Erenhot Medical College in Inner Mongolia. The insider said the hospital had recently admitted more than 70 plague patients, and more than 40 had died. Many arrived with advanced illness, contributing to the high death toll. Some bodies were cremated before families were notified. The insider said the hospital lacked experience handling the outbreak at first. More than 10 doctors became infected, and three died. Publicly, however, the hospital maintained that it had never admitted plague patients and denied that any such cases existed. Thousands of cases were also described in Hohhot, Chifeng, Tongliao, Baotou, and other parts of Inner Mongolia. Some pharmacies had sold out of plague treatments, including streptomycin, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin. Information about the situation was being blocked. The insider said some hospital leaders had already stockpiled large amounts of antibiotics at home. They would take them immediately if family members developed symptoms. Meanwhile, ordinary people were kept in the dark about the outbreak and seriousness of potential risks. The vlogger said, if this account is true, the issue goes beyond the outbreak itself. It is also about whether people have been denied timely information and the chance to protect themselves. The most frightening part is that some people may have known and taken precautions, while leaving everyone else exposed without their knowledge. People's lives should not be the price of an information blackout. Other posts on X have said that plague has entered China, naming Henan, Inner Mongolia, and even Shanghai and Chongqing. One post said Henan had recorded three cases of pneumonic plague imported from Russia. The rumors also said that after the patients were isolated, medical staff were told to avoid the word plague in their records. Instead, they were instructed to write pneumonia of unknown cause to conceal the outbreak. The social media account Truth Media cited an anonymous person who said they worked at a P4 or maximum containment laboratory in China. The person said suspected infections had appeared in Shanghai and Chongqing. They also said two patients who entered from Russia were isolated for screening and died five days later. The post also said Chinese infectious disease control agencies had asked Russia for information about the illness but were refused. They went on to speculate that the outbreak could be linked to Russian biological or chemical weapons. The official WeChat accounts of disease control authorities in Zhengzhou and Yongzhou, Hunan have issued plague prevention reminders. They stress that plague can be prevented, treated, and controlled. Meanwhile, numerous medical workers and independent vloggers on Douyin have posted explanations of plague and black death prevention and treatment. That has heightened concerns. Even people studying this disease have been affected. If it really has appeared, we need to know what to do. I'm Dr. Zhang Chao. Some of you may not be familiar with the plague, but you've probably heard its other name, the black death. In the 14th century, it killed nearly one-third of Europe's population. got that name because the hands and feet can turn black as the tissue dies. He said plague is a class A infectious disease in China, subject to the strictest controls and known as a number one disease. It has three forms. The most common is bubonic plague. A bite from an infected flea can cause a sudden high fever and severely painful swollen lymph nodes in the groin or armpits. Pneumonic plague spreads most aggressively. The bacteria attack the lungs, causing high fever, severe coughing, and bloody sputum. It can also spread through respiratory droplets. Without treatment, it can kill within one or two days. The third and most frightening form is septicemic plague. Bacteria enter the bloodstream, causing widespread infection and shock. The hands and feet lose their blood supply, turn black, and develop dead tissue. That's where the name Black Death came from. The vlogger offered three prevention tips. First, do not touch wild animals, even marmots that look cute. Second, do not hunt or eat wild animals. Third, protect yourself from fleas and avoid travel to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Inner Mongolia. As early as September 29, a person in mainland China posted a video showing outbreak prevention rules issued by Anhui province. Anyone who identifies a major infectious disease outbreak occurring for the first time, worldwide or in China, can receive 10,000 yuan. Those who identify outbreaks of plague, SARS, inhalation anthrax, smallpox, polio, or other major infectious diseases can receive 8,000 yuan each. The Provincial Disease Control Bureau funds the rewards under its regulations. She said in the video, You might have seen this news. All I can say is that from now on, we have to protect ourselves and our families. We can only rely on ourselves. When you go out, use alcohol spray when needed. and wear a mask when needed. You absolutely cannot let your guard down. People commented, when I saw it on the public account, I thought it was strange. Today, I saw a post saying cases had already been found in Inner Mongolia. There must be cases in many other parts of the country. Otherwise, they wouldn't issue this. When I tell people about this, they accuse me of spreading rumors. I don't know what to do. Another vlogger said in a video, Two major things are happening in Inner Mongolia. First, the Disease Control Center in Hulunbuir issued a plague prevention advisory. It urges people arriving from natural plague areas in the Russian Far East to closely monitor their health. Anyone with suspected symptoms should immediately visit the nearest medical facility and honestly report their travel history in plague areas. Second, a grassland fire in Mongolia is spreading towards our border. So far, more than 2,000 people have been mobilized to stop it. The fire has not crossed the border yet, but the situation is very tense and dangerous. One person wrote, The grassland fire in Mongolia may be intended to stop plague or another outbreak from spreading. Another said, I'm worried about more than a plague. I'm afraid the Russians aren't telling the truth, and it's something even more frightening. Russia's Irkutsk Oblast officially lifted the disease prevention and isolation measures related to the incident on October 8th. Xiao Quan, an international student there, told a reporter, people aren't worried here. Our classes haven't been moved online, and people aren't wearing masks. I'm outside right now. People really aren't worried, and there are no preventative measures. A lot of us came out to run errands today. We still have classes this afternoon. A person familiar with the situation said local residents were paying little attention to prevention measures and living as usual. Chinese residents, however, had bought nearly all the masks at pharmacies. Shuang Long, a man from Beijing, chose to return to China and wait. He told a reporter, I spent more than 6,000 yuan on a connecting flight back to Beijing and arrived early on October 11th. I took one month of unpaid leave to be absolutely safe. I'm not even betting on even a 1% chance. I don't trust the Russian government. It was the same at the start of the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union. They all said everything was fine. He added, On the surface, nothing seems wrong in Moscow. No one stopped me when I got off the plane. The plane was full of Russians, and nothing looked unusual. Every seat was taken, and no one wore a mask. There were quite a few Chinese passengers too, and they weren't wearing masks either. I'll stay home for a month and see how things develop. Harbin resident Yang Ming said, I asked a friend in Irkutsk. The local government says it can be controlled and has already been brought under control, but no one knows what's really happening. Honestly, if major news about this appeared online, the pharmacies were run out of medicine in less than half a day. I don't even know what medicine to use for this. People can't get reliable information, so they keep going about their lives. They can't see the danger. Russian officials previously said 28-year-old researcher Daria Shipalova died on October 2 due to pneumonia of unknown origin. Tests on her remains and other related samples found no high-threat pathogens, including the plague bacterium. Disease control restrictions were temporarily imposed in Irkutsk and surrounding areas. Officials stressed that no biosafety incident had occurred at the institute. They said medical monitoring and isolation of about 200 close contacts were precautionary because of the nature of her work. They said there was no evidence of ongoing transmission. The World Health Organization recently said the information provided by Russia remained incomplete, preventing an independent risk assessment. It was continuing to ask for detailed test results for the deceased researcher and her contacts, the exact pathogen involved, and the reasons for isolation. Russian authorities deny that plague occurred, but they still have not publicly identified the pathogen that killed the researcher. The lack of transparency has drawn close attention internationally and in neighboring countries. After reports that a Russian Institute employee had died from plague, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan strengthened isolation precautions and testing. Several experts said the signs recalled the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak and the potential risks were impossible to gauge. Sean Lin, a former director at a virology lab at the U.S. Army Research Institute, said, Russia is not being transparent, and China is also providing very little information. To clear up the confusion, Russia needs to be transparent and explain how the patients were treated. It cannot simply dismiss this as an unidentified plague or an unexplained pneumonia. Jonathan Liu, a professor of traditional Chinese medicine at a public college in Canada, said, Right now, areas near Russia and countries connected to it by flights or other transportation may be especially worried. The Russian government's handling of this is so opaque that it's hard not to think back to the start of COVID-19. The international community should put more pressure on the Russian government. It's very important that we do not repeat the mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also expressed concern. If the Anti-Plague Institute is working on biological weapons such as antibiotic-resistant plague bacteria, that would certainly be treated as a state secret. It would not be readily disclosed to the international community. This is very similar to the CCP's Wuhan Institute of Virology and its pattern of behavior. This is what worries the international community the most. The main concern now is whether other unidentified pathogens are involved. People may still be skeptical about biological weapons, or may not even believe that it's really happening. But various clues mean that possibility cannot be completely ruled out at this point. The unknown cause and incomplete information have brought back memories of the early COVID-19 outbreak. That outbreak also began with unexplained pneumonia and scattered cases. People outside the affected area struggled to get an accurate picture in time. People in China are concerned about the close travel links between China and Russia. China introduced visa-free entry for Russian citizens on September 15, 2025. Russia did the same for Chinese citizens on December 1, 2025. Travel between the two countries exceeded 3 million trips in 2025. It rose 43% year-over-year in the first half of this year. Russia is now China's second-largest source of international visitors. People have also noted that China and Russia held a joint emergency drill for cross-border infectious disease outbreaks in Fuyuan in August 24-27. Officials attending included Chen Lei, Deputy Director of the Disease Control Bureau's Emergency Response Department, and Fang Qingwei, Deputy Director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Health Commission and head of its Disease Control Bureau. People online questioned whether the drill, held shortly before the suspected pneumonic plague outbreak, had an undisclosed purpose.