Update: Seven counties in Colorado are under a plague alert. This year, San Miguel County, El Paso County, Boulder County, Huerfano County, Adams County and La Plate County have all reported cases of the plague. Plague infections in animals occur each summer, often in prairie dogs or other rodents, and can be transmitted to humans in close contact with flea infested animals. The girl who died in La Plata (Durango) raised hogs in 4-H. Pneumonic plague develops from inhaling infectious droplets or from untreated bubonic plague after it spreads to the lungs.
More: Speaking of smallpox: the CDC is monitoring 200 people for a possible outbreak of monkeypox, caused by a virus similar to smallpox. An individual returning from Nigeria brought the disease into Texas in July. Contract tracing has begun to identify persons on flights from Lagos to Atlanta and Atlanta to Dallas on July 9th who may have had close contact (<6ft) with the infected one. An emergency room in Dallas diagnosed Patient One with the rare disease that causes rashes on the palms of hands and bottom of feet. Fortunately the transmission rate for the virus is low. CDC says that the fatality rate for the strain of monkeypox seen in the Dallas case is about 10%. The last detection of monkeypox in the US was in 2003 with forty-three cases. That outbreak occurred when infected small mammals and rodents were shipped from Ghana to Texas. The disease is linked to the handling of bush meat and trade in exotic animals.
{23.07.21}Plague still roams the Earth and it is here in colorful Colorado. A ten year old girl succumbed to an infection of Yersinia pestis [photo] in La Plata County, Colorado in June. Her death was reported by the San Juan Public Health authorities on Friday. A few cases occur in the United States, although rare. Four people died of the disease in 2015 with half coming from Colorado. Between 2005 and 2021, there were nearly 570 cases of animals infected with the plague in Colorado, including 104 cats and dogs. Infected fleas and animals carry the disease and it can be transmitted through flea bites or close contact with infected animals.
Bubonic plague or Black Death, which decimated Europe in the Middle Ages, is one of three types of disease caused by the pathogen. Plague was brought to the US by steamships infested with rats in the early 1900's. Most cases of plague in the US occur in the rural southwest. Infections can be treated effectively with modern drugs, but treatment is most effective if the disease is caught in its early stages. Prompt diagnosis is somewhat elusive since the initial symptoms are similar to flu or COVID-19: fever, chills, headache, coughing and feeling weak. One or more swollen, tender and painful lymph nodes may also present.