It was stated by Xinhua on this Saturday with reference to the local Board of Health and Family Planning.
"In Gansu Province 45-year-old man died from the plague," said the statement.
The shepherd named Ma died in a hospital on Wednesday, but the exact cause of his death was established only after full laboratory studies.
Ma grazed his sheep in a pasture, where in recent years the plague was spread among marmots. 41 people were in contact with the dead man, all of them were placed in quarantine, and the house of the deceased is subjected to disinfection.
It is the second case of death from the plague in the district of Jiuquan this year. Another victim also caught the plague from marmots. The State Committee on Health and Family Planning sent specialists to the county to find out all the circumstances of the infections and to prevent the spread of the disease.
Plague belongs to Class A, the most serious group of infectious diseases within the Chinese law on the prevention and treatment of infections.