14 DAY TRIAL // The news that a 15-year-old boy in Kyrgyzstan has died after becoming infected with the bubonic plague is now spreading like wildfire.
The teenager passed away about a week ago in a local hospital near the border with Kazakhstan.
However, it took a while for doctors and other specialists to pin down the exact cause of death, and determine that the Black Death was to blame for his demise.
Health officials suspect that the teenager contracted the disease as a result of his having been bitten by an infected flea.
One other possibility is that he ate infected marmot meat, Mirror tells us.
This second explanation is backed up by the fact that the teenager reportedly started feeling ill shortly after sharing a meal with his family.
Now that health officials have figured out what killed this 15-year-old boy, his remains have been cremated and buried.
Special precautions have been taken to make sure that the disease does not affect other people.
Besides, health ministry official Tolo Isakov reassures that a team of trained people is now looking to rid the boy's village of any rodents that might be carrying the plague.
2,000 people living in the region are being tested for this disease, and health officials say they'll release the results of these tests as soon as they have them, the same source informs us.
Should others be found to be carrying this disease, they will be treated with antibiotics.
Despite its having killed millions of people in Europe during the Middle Ages, bubonic plague seldom hits humans nowadays. Thus, it more often than not sickens and kills animals.
Official reports say that the case of this teenager is the first of its kind to have been recorded in Kyrgyzstan in nearly 30 years' time.
What's more, the World Health Organization maintains that merely 400 cases of bubonic plague were reported worldwide in 2012. 90% of these cases were recorded in Africa, especially in Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.