The “Black Death” is back, and this time it's being carried by a cat.
Oregon recently confirmed its first case of bubonic plague in nearly eight years. State health officials believe a resident picked up the plague from their very sick pet cat.
Thankfully, there were no fatalities; the resident's illness was caught in its early stages, and the individual is receiving treatment. State health officials are also treating those close to the infected resident as well as the sick cat.
Is this resurgence of plague a harbinger of doom? Is a blast-from-the-past pandemic on the horizon? Will we all need to re-learn the words to “Ring Around the Rosie”?
No, it'll probably be fine.
In fact, plague crops up somewhere in the country pretty much every year.
Between 1970 and 2020, there were nearly 500 cases of human plague reported in the US – about seven cases on average each year, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
For most, the words “bubonic plague” conjure images of diseased rats, grim medieval cities, creepy beaked doctor's masks, and carts full of the dead. But medicine has come a long way since the 1300's, and modern antibiotics are very good at fighting back the illness, so long as they catch it before it progresses into advanced stages.
While the treatments have changed, the carriers haven't; most of the plague carriers are rodents and other smaller woodland mammals. Squirrels, chipmunks, rats, cats and prairie dogs all can carry the disease. Cats are “highly susceptible” to infection, according to Oregon state health officials, because they hunt and eat rodents.
“If possible, discourage their hunting of rodents,” the health services said. “Consult a veterinarian immediately if your cat becomes sick after being in contact with rodents.”
In 2021, seven counties in Colorado were warned to be on guard against the plague after a 10-year-old girl died from the disease.
The girl who died reportedly raised hogs, according to a report by The Durango Herald at the time. Health authorities collected fleas from the animals, believing that they could have hopped from the hogs to the girl and caused the infection.
Around the same time the girl died, an entire prairie dog colony disappeared, leading health officials to believe that the plague may have swept through the population and then travelled by fleas to infect other animals.
Prairie dogs are so susceptible to the plague that they serve as a sort of canary in a coal mine for Colorado health officials. Anytime a colony goes silent, they begin testing for bubonic plague.
“If you notice decreased rodent activity in an area where you normally see active rodents, contact your local public health agency,” the Colorado Department of Public Health warned residents at the time.
The plague can be transmitted to humans by flea bites or through direct contact with infected animals. Its symptoms are typically similar to illnesses like the flu or Covid-19, with infected individuals developing coughs, fevers, and swollen lymph nodes.
In the US, the bubonic plague crops up most frequently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Worldwide, Africa typically has the highest number of plague cases each year, according to the CDC.
