A couple have died in Mongolia from bubonic plague
after eating raw marmot. The deaths of the Mongolian couple led to a quarantine that left tourists stranded for days. The pair had eaten raw marmot meat and kidney and a six-day quarantine was imposed on May 1 following their deaths in Mongolia’s wester Bayan Olgii province bordering China and Russia. The plague 
was responsible for millions of deaths in Europe and Asia in the 14th century. Cases are very rare today but can be deadly unless sufferers are treated with antibiotics. The couple had eaten the meat of the marmot, a type of rodent, as it was thought to be a remedy for good health, it was reported. The quarantine has now been lifted, allowing tourists to leave the area. Marmots
are a known carrier of the plague bacteria and hunting them is illegal. “After the quarantine not many people, even locals, were in the streets for fear of catching the disease,” Sebastian Pique, a US Peace Corps volunteer, told the AFP news agency. The World Health Organization (WHO) said 118 people had come into contact with the couple and had to be isolated and administered antibiotics. It was reported that dozens of tourists from Russia, Germany and the US were unable to leave the area for a period because of the quarantine. The plague is usually transmitted from animals to humans via fleas and has a 30% to 60% fatality rate if left untreated.
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