Bubonic plague-carrying fleas found in parts of northern Arizona

AUGUST 15, 2017

by Chuck Bednar

Fleas in some parts of northern Arizona have tested positive for the bubonic plague, a now-rare disease believed to have been responsible for millions of deaths during the Middle Ages, health officials confirmed to ABC News, Newsweek and other media outlets over the past week.

The infected parasites were first detected in Coconino County and have since also been found in Navajo County, according to published reports. While the insects have indeed tested positive for Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague, thus far, no illnesses have been reported.

In a statement, the Navajo County Health Department said that it was “urging the public to take precautions to reduce their risk of exposure to this serious disease, which can be present in fleas, rodents, rabbits and predators that feed upon these animals.” They added that the illness “can be transmitted to humans and other animals by the bite of an infected flea.”

Humans can also catch the disease through bodily fluids (such as respiratory droplets), as well as through direct contact with infected animals (including handling tissues or fluids from a creature that has contracted the disease), Newsweek noted. People living, working or visiting the affected areas are also advised to keep their pets from roaming free, ABC News added.

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Could this ancient flea harbor ancestors of the bubonic plague?

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

by Savanna Walker

Here's hoping no one goes Jurassic Park on this and unleashes prehistoric Black Death upon us all. Scientists from Oregon State University have found a 20 million year old flea, fossilized in amber, and surrounded by bacteria that they believe may be the ancestors of the Black Death.

George Poinar, Jr., an entomologist and expert on life forms preserved in amber, published the findings in the Journal of Medical Entomology. The fossilized flea was found in amber mines from the Dominican Republic, an area which was a tropical forest millions of years ago. Very few fleas have been found in amber, and none have had associated bacteria.

It’s not certain yet that the bacteria are Yersinia pestis, but their size, shape, and characteristics are similar to modern forms of the disease. They come in both rod and spherical shapes, and Yersinia is the only pathogenic bacteria transmitted by fleas that evidences both forms. Also, the location of the bacteria in both the rectum and proboscis of the flea is consistent with how Yersinia is transmitted today.

Uh wait, does this mean evolution is wrong?

However, modern genomic studies date the flea-plague-vertebrate cycle as evolving only 20,000 years ago, far more recent than the 20 million-year-old flea fossil. If these microbes are actually Yersinia pestis, it would mean that the disease actually predates humans and the previous dates given for its evolution are wrong.

There are several strains of Yersinia pestis, and some past outbreaks of the disease were probably caused by strains that are now extinct. Poinar believes that ancient forms of the disease could have been strictly rodent parasites.

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Rats Blamed For Bubonic Plague, But Gerbils May Be The Real Villains

Rats have a bad rap. They have for centuries. Ever since the middle of the 14th century when the Black Plague descended over Europe.

Rats took the rap for spreading the bubonic plague, which killed millions of people over the next 400 years. It has long been believed that swarms of rats spread the disease when fleas flew from their feverish, infected, furry little bodies and bit into thin-skinned humans.

Rat has been an epithet ever since. Snitches, squealers, back-stabbers, and double-crossers are called rats. Think of Jimmy Cagney sneering, "You dirty rat!" (Though — to spare a lot of emails — what he actually said onscreen was, "You dirty yellow-bellied rat.")

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Bubonic plague outbreak feared in central Asia

Tuesday 27 August 2013 14.48 BST

Health officials fear an outbreak of bubonic plague in central Asia after a teenage boy died from the disease and three more were admitted to hospital in Kyrgyzstan.

Temirbek Isakunov, a 15-year-old from a mountain village near the border with Kazakhstan, reportedly died from the disease last week after eating an infected barbecued marmot. Kyrgyzstan's emergency ministry said a young woman and two children from a different village who came into contact with Isakunov were hospitalised on Tuesday with the high fever and swelling around the neck and armpits characteristic of bubonic plague, local news outlets reported.

A total of 131 people, including 33 medical personnel, have been quarantined, although none of them have yet exhibited symptoms of the disease, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in Kyrgyzstan reported. The health ministry continues to find and quarantine people who came into contact with the teenager, according to its director.

Kazakhstan has stepped up its border control with Kyrgyzstan and is operating quarantine points in light of the possible outbreak, the news agency Tengrinews reported. The Kazakh health ministry is searching out people who might have come into contact with the dead teenager, and is also determining where animal carriers of the disease might be moving between the two countries, according to a ministry official.

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Los Angeles campgrounds closed after plague-infected squirrel found

Thursday 25 July 2013 18.59 BST

Health authorities have closed three campgrounds in a forest near Los Angeles after the discovery of a squirrel infected with the plague.

County officials and the US Forest Service shut the campgrounds in Angeles national forest on Wednesday after a trapped squirrel tested positive for the disease.

"Plague is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas, which is why we close affected campgrounds and recreational areas as a precaution while preventive measures are taken to control the flea population," Jonathan Fielding, head of the county health department, said in an advisory.

Bubonic plague was known as the black death when it devastated medieval Europe, killing millions, but is now rare, treatable with antibiotics and seldom fatal to humans. There have been just four cases of human plague in LA county residents since 1984, said Fielding. All survived.

The shuttered campgrounds, Twisted Arrow, Broken Blade and Pima Loops, are on Table Mountain, part of the San Gabriel mountains, near the town of Wrightwood.

The ground squirrel – part of a group so named for preferring to live on the ground rather than trees – was trapped for routine surveillance on July 16. The test result was confirmed on Tuesday.

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Boy dies of bubonic plague in Kyrgyzstan

A 15-year-old herder has died in Kyrgyzstan of bubonic plague - the first case in the country in 30 years - officials say.

The teenager appears to have been bitten by an infected flea.

The authorities have sought to calm fears of an epidemic and have quarantined more than 100 people.

Bubonic plague, known as the Black Death when it killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages, is now rare.

World Health Organisation epidemic disease expert Eric Bertherat told the BBC there were about 400 cases of bubonic plague reported in 2012.

He said Africa accounted for more than 90% of cases worldwide - especially Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr Bertherat said that bubonic plague in Central Asia was usually transmitted by fleas attached to small wild mammals, which meant that only those who lived in rural areas and worked outside for long hours were in danger of being affected.

"Because bubonic plague is such a rare event, local medical staff are not prepared to diagnose the disease and treat it appropriately," he said, "which means the first patient usually dies without even a diagnostic.

"If secondary cases occur, medical staff are aware and better able to treat patients with antibiotics."

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Man develops BUBONIC PLAGUE from stray cat bite and narrowly escapes death... but will have fingers and toes amputated

A 59-year-old man is out of hospital after spending a month in intensive care due to infection from the bubonic plague.

Paul Gaylord, 59, developed the symptoms after he was bitten by a stray cat his family had adopted.

The cat, named Charlie, had caught a rodent which was stuck in his throat. It is thought that the rat was infected by fleas, which carry the disease.

Initially, Mr Gaylord thought he had the flu when he developed a fever after the bite.

After antibiotics failed to make him feel better, he was rushed to hospital when his lymph nodes swelled to the size of lemons.

He still faces surgery to remove his withered, blackened fingers and toes - one of the symptoms of the terrible disease that gave it the name, the 'black death'.

Although the welder will not be able to work again, he is lucky to be alive.

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