Just when you thought that it was safe to go outside….

The plague. Like, isn’t that from the middle ages, when the plague swept across Central Asia and Europe and is believed to have killed about 75 million people before calling it a day? Actually, 75 million was just the toll for one year.

* 1000 38 million
* 1100 48 million
* 1200 59 million
* 1300 70 million
* 1347 75 million
* 1352 50 million

However, the bubonic plague has not been wiped off the face of the earth, and is found in many countries including the United States. Yes, gasp, we have the plague right here at home. It’s not very common, but it is endemic in the southwest.

An average of 10-15 cases per year have been reported in the U.S. during the last few decades. One of the largest animal foci of the plague worldwide is found west of the 100th parallel, in states such as New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and California. Only one case of imported plague has been reported since 1926, and in 2006, 13 human plague cases were reported in the United States, the most since 1994. Not a good trend, if you ask me.

I remember reading a while ago that because the plague is quite uncommon in the U.S., your chance of getting a correct diagnosis is not very good. At least, not before it kills you. In fact, you are far more likely to get a correct diagnosis in Vietnam, where they see far more cases, and changes of survival are far greater.

From Medical News Today:

Eric York, a 37 year old wildlife biologist who worked at the Grand Canyon National Park who was found dead at his home on the South Rim of the Canyon in Arizona on November 2nd, probably died of the plague caught while carrying out an autopsy on a mountain lion that had probably died of the disease a week earlier.

Plague, due to the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was confirmed as the likely cause of death following preliminary laboratory tests at the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

York had been treated at a local clinic for flu like symptoms that started three days after he did the autopsy, but nothing more serious than that was diagnosed at the time. When he was found dead health officials suspected either plague or hantavirus that causes a type of hemorrhagic fever, and immediately tracked down 49 people who had been in recent contact with him so they could have aggressive antibiotic treatment. None of them has become ill.