BEIJING – The completion of the first railway linking Tibet to other Chinese regions could fuel the spread of rat-borne diseases such as plague that mainly affect remote areas of northwest China, state media said.
The railway, which will link the Himalayan region with the rest of China when it opens in summer, could carry infected rats and people to more densely populated areas, China Daily said Saturday.
Quoting State Forestry Administration officials, it said the spread of plague was currently under control because of the lack of rail access to remote affected areas in Tibet, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia.
But once the railway was operational, controlling a plague epidemic could prove difficult, it said.
Plague is not a major public health issue in China, with 24 people dying of the disease between 2001 and 2005, according to the official People’s Daily’s website.
The disease, carried by fleas on rats and marmots, could be controlled with antibiotics but the poor level of health care in remote areas resulted in a fatality rate of 40 to 60 percent, state media said.
The disease is spread to humans via flea bites. Once the bacteria is present in bodily fluids, it can easily spread through the human population.
“This year, we have to do more to prevent plague as the disease is likely to spread to more areas with the operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway,” said Wu Jian, chief engineer of the administration’s department of afforestation.
In China, victims of the disease usually contract it while hunting marmots.
In Nangqen county, in Qinghai province, the disease spread among at least four families in 2004 and killed six people by the time the local centre for disease control was informed, the reports said.
