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Yersinia
pestis, Direct Fluorescent Antibody Stain (DFA), 200x Magnification. CDC 2057 ©
US Government public domain image / Wikipedia
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A 16-year-old girl has
been diagnosed with bubonic plague in Crook County, Oregon, the local health
authority confirmed. “The
girl is believed to have acquired the disease from a flea bite during a hunting
trip near Heppner in Morrow County that started on October16. She reportedly fell
ill on October 21 and was hospitalized in Bend on October 24. She is recovering
in the hospital’s intensive care unit,” the official press release says.
The
teenage patient is said to be recovering.
No
other infected people have been reported so far.
Humans
can catch plague from fleas that jump from infected rodents, such as squirrels,
chipmunks or rats.
RT USA report continues:
"Many
people think of the plague as a disease of the past, but it's still very much
present in our environment, particularly among wildlife,” said Emilio DeBess,
DVM, state public health veterinarian in the Public Health Division’s Acute and
Communicable Disease Prevention Section.
Although
the disease is extremely rare, since 1995 eight human cases have been diagnosed
in Oregon.
Fifteen
other human cases of the plague have been reported in the United States this
year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Four of the
patients died.
In
the US the plague usually occurs in rural and semi-rural western areas, most
commonly in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado.
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Bubonic
plague, estimated to have killed between 30 and 60 percent of the European
population in the 14th century, can now be successfully treated with
antibiotics, especially if the disease is diagnosed in its early stages.
Symptoms
include an overall feeling of sickness, sudden fever, swollen lymph nodes (most
commonly in the neck and under the jaw), abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.
Worldwide the average
annual number of people diagnosed with plague is around 2.5 thousand, a number
that shows no tendency to decline.
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