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Thread: So the Black Death is still a thing?

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    LUSE Galant's Avatar
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    So the Black Death is still a thing?

    Yosemite National Park, California - Someone found with and being treated for the Plague, which follows two deaths earlier in the year.

    Apparently:

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the United States has about seven annual cases, over 80% of which have been in the bubonic form.

    Thus, the four human cases reported so far in 2015 appears to be in line with those numbers.

    Until now, California hadn't had an instance of human plague since 2006, when there were three cases in Mono, Los Angeles and Kern counties, according to state health officer Dr. Karen Smith. There have been 42 cases in the state since 1970, of which nine proved fatal.

    "Although this is a rare disease, people should protect themselves from infection by avoiding any contact with wild rodents," Smith said.
    No trees were harmed in the creation of this message. However, many electrons were displaced and terribly inconvenienced.

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    Token 'murican GuidoLS's Avatar
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    Re: So the Black Death is still a thing?

    The latest numbers I can find indicate there were ~750 cases of it in Europe in 2013, with ~125 deaths. So yes, the disease still exists, much as polio, measles, chicken pox, small pox, etc still exist. We've become much better at containing, controlling and curing the mass killers of the past, but we haven't, nor do I think we are capable of, completely removing them.

    Interestingly, in the US at least, most cases seem to come from people camping in areas with public cabins that aren't entirely enclosed or designed for permanent human habitation - aka places where rodents like to hang out when it's raining and after people visit, leaving their crumbs behind.

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    Hexus.Jet TeePee's Avatar
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    Re: So the Black Death is still a thing?

    There are a few case every year on the Reservation. I flew a patient that turned into a suspected plague case, which meant I got prophylactic antibiotics. No idea how it turned out for the patient, I was fine. It's endemic in the Prarie Dog populations, and the fleas spread to the Rez Dogs. Combine that with a population with poor sanitation and attitudes to healthcare and it's surprising we don't see more.

    Plague isn't 'that bad'. Hantavirus is a lot more scary and less treatable.

    Small Pox HAS been removed. Polio could be, even within the next decade.

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    HEXUS.timelord. Zak33's Avatar
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    Re: So the Black Death is still a thing?

    While it's scary that such disease still scurges our planet. lymes disease is current hot news item.

    Every woodland forum.. Every health show...every countryside article.. Has lymes disease on the agenda.

    Tick....tick....everywhere

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    Re: So the Black Death is still a thing?

    I know they found some traces of it when they were expanding the rail network in London a couple of years back when they unearthed a plague pit. Studied the black death and that era for my A level, never though I would hear about it again in papers etc.

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