A 15-year old who ate marmot meat died from an outbreak of bubonic plague in Kyrgyzstan, according to a report released Wednesday.
According to the CBS News, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Health confirmed that four people in the Central Asian country have been hospitalized.
As of late, 160 people are being quarantined to prevent the outbreak from worsening.
The 15-year old boy told medics that he had eaten barbecued marmot, a type of squirrel that lives in mountainous areas, while on a camping trip the previous week.
The health ministry immediately established a quarantine in certain parts of the country's mountainous northeast but confirmed that there is no deliberate risk of an epidemic.
On Wednesday, four residents in the boy's village were hospitalized after complaining of fever but none of them had direct contact with the 15-year old boy.
According to CBS News, thousands of cases of bubonic plague are reported each year in all parts of the world.
People can contact the disease after being bitten by an infected insect or animal or by coming into close contact with an infected animal.
Bubonic plague is one of the disease's three forms. It is characterized by an imflammation of the tonsils, adenoids, spleen and thymus.
It results to symptoms including fever, aches, chills and swollen or tender lymph glands.
