While COVID-19 cases continue to spread across China, several haemorrhagic fever cases and even deaths have been reported in the country's northwestern Shaanxi province.
Lucy Crawford, writing in VISION TIMES, said that Chinese officials are keeping it quiet but people suspect that the disease is directly related to a rampant rodent infestation.
Xi'an News reported that hospitals in China's north-western city of Xi'an have reported numerous cases of haemorrhagic fever since the beginning of winter this year.
News about haemorrhagic fever broke out, one after another, in many social media groups on WeChat and QQ in China, reported Crawford.
"Be on the lookout. An outbreak of haemorrhagic fever has been circulating online in Xi'an, with videos showing a neighbourhood being welded shut. Deaths are said to have occurred," the tweet said.
"In Xi'an, Shaanxi province, the outbreak was controlled on a large scale, with many areas closed and people lining up in the middle of the night for nucleic acid tests. Meanwhile. Suspected haemorrhagic fever outbreak in Chang'an County, Xi'an, Shaanxi," the tweet read.
On December 18, Shaanxi officials said at a press conference that there were 10 new confirmed local cases and three asymptomatic cases in Xi'an.
The situation in Xi'an is serious and complex, and nucleic acid testing has been initiated for the entire population.
Though the Chinese government refused to acknowledge the severity of the situation, the reality has been brutal as different kinds of plagues continue to break out and spread through China, said Crawford.
According to an online chat, a local health care worker revealed that his hospital's infectious disease unit is full of patients and that all hospitals designated for haemorrhagic fever in Xi'an are full, and some have even been forced to close.
As of 2:00 am on December 20, the topic of "multiple cases of haemorrhagic fever in Xi'an" on Weibo has attracted 280 million people and 4,483 discussions, reported VISION TIMES.
According to the then self-proclaimed staff of the Xuanwu Hospital in China, "ordinary (poor and powerless) plague patients were sent to the hospital by the Chinese Communist Party only for isolation without any recovery treatment, and the dead were shipped away for direct incineration."
This method is similar to the treatment of SARS in 2002. "The government only did strict quarantine and didn't do any treatment. The people had to cope with it," added the staff, reported VISION TIMES.
Experts pointed out that haemorrhagic fever is a common infectious disease in China's north, which typically starts to peak in October every year.
It's a disease that is mainly transmitted by rodents, the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), and the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus).
Those who are bitten or come into contact with the blood or excrement of rodents carrying the virus may be infected, and serious cases may lead to death.
( With inputs from ANI )
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