The United Kingdom has warned against travel to Mongolia amid a suspected outbreak of bubonic plague.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) currently advises “against all but essential international travel” to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the UK’s Express reported.
The warning comes after a hospital in Bayannur, a city northwest of Beijing, notified local government officials earlier this month about a suspected case of bubonic plague.
UK officials said travelers to the rural areas of the region should avoid consuming marmot — a rodent believed to be a source of the highly infectious and often fatal disease.
“The meat is a delicacy in some rural areas although it is illegal to hunt for marmot in Mongolia,” the FCO said in an advisory.
“In traveling through rural areas, you should avoid marmot meat and take precautionary actions on bubonic plague.”
Anyone who believes they have been exposed to bubonic plague in Mongolia should “immediately” report to the nearest hospital, the agency said.
The report comes as a squirrel tested positive for the bubonic plague in Morrison, Colorado.
The bubonic plague, known as the Black Death in the Middle Ages, is not uncommon in China, but cases have become increasingly rare.
With Post wires