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On Tuesday, two people in China were diagnosed with a strain of the plague more infectious than the strain that ravaged Europe in the Dark Ages, sparking a push by authorities to contain the infection and prevent an epidemic.

The plague is a serious infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacteria typically found in mammals and fleas. It can cause symptoms like fever, vomiting and nausea, and has a high mortality rate.

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According to Chinese publication Xinhua, doctors in Beijing confirmed that the patients, from China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, were infected with pneumonic plague.

This strain, which targets the lungs, incubates in a host in 24 hours and, unlike the bubonic plague, can be transmitted from person to person

The plague — specifically the bubonic plague, the strain which is typically caught from an infected flea and targets the lymph nodes — is historically notorious for being the cause of the Black Death, a terrible epidemic which killed an estimated 60 per cent of the European population in the 14th century.