Russian boy contracts bubonic plague

A 10-year-old Russian boy in Siberia has contracted bubonic plague after he accidentally cut himself while skinning a marmot after a hunt.

A Russian boy in Siberia's Altai Mountains has contracted bubonic plague while skinning marmots after a hunt, local media report.

The 10-year-old was brought to a hospital in the rural town of Kosh-Agach the previous day in critical condition with a temperature above 40C, state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.

The boy was diagnosed as having the plague, and 17 people with whom he had recently been in contact were quarantined, the report said.

The boy apparently contracted the bacterial disease while helping his grandfather skin marmots after a hunt, the Life News media agency reported.

The boy was cutting the rodent and accidentally cut himself in the process, the report said.

Marmots, whose furs are sold as a cheap substitute for sable, have been known to carry the disease.

The last significant outbreak of the plague in Russia was recorded among marmot hunters in Siberia in the early 1900s.