A squirrel carrying the bubonic plague has caused a touch of hysteria to infect some U.S. residents this week, as worrywarts bite their fingernails over concerns for the return of the so-called "Black Death." But should this actually be a cause for mass panic? Not really, say experts.


The sick squirrel, which was trapped in mid-July in California's Angeles National Forest and underwent routine testing, prompted the closure of three campgrounds[2] after it tested positive for the plague. The Los Angeles Daily News reports Broken Blade, Twisted Arrow and Pima Loops of the Table Mountain campgrounds[3] were closed Wednesday.


As the plague-infected rodent[4] made headlines[5] this week[6] , netizens took to social media to express their concern. "Is [this] plague the same thing as THE plague, and is this how the world ends?" wrote one worried Twitter user[7] Friday. "A squirrel in California has the plague. Should we be worried?" wondered another[8] .


The infected rodent did indeed carry the same disease that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages[9] . "It is the plague, the Black Death," Ken Gage, chief of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's flea-borne diseases section in Fort Collins, Colo., told The Huffington Post over the phone Friday.


As the CDC points out on its website[10] , however, modern antibiotics are effective in treating the plague. Over the last few decades, the percentage of people in the United States who die from the plague has fallen dramatically. During the pre-antibiotic era, about two-thirds of all plague victims died from the disease; but nowadays, about 90 percent of plague victims who get prompt medical attention survive.


It is also quite unlikely that you would ever contract the disease. According to the CDC, an average of 7 human plague cases are reported in the U.S. each year.


Still, despite its rarity and relatively high survival rate, the disease, which is caused by the bacterium Yersina pestis, must be taken seriously. If untreated, plague can cause serious illness and death. Plague symptoms include fever, headache, chills, weakness and swollen lymph nodes[11] .


Earlier this year, i09's Esther Inglis-Arkell wrote about the disease, explaining "why people in the United States are still dying from the bubonic plague[12] ." She concluded that it's pertinent for us all to remember the deadliness of the disease.


"The United States is one of the many countries around the world that technically still suffers from what was once called the Black Death. Although we're not keeling over like medieval peasants, there are regular cases of bubonic plague that spring up every year in the American southwest. Occasionally, they lead to deaths," she wrote. "[The plague is] incredibly well-known, but still almost unthinkable. No one seriously considers the plague these days, and a few scattered cases throughout an entire nation doesn't mean that people will recognize it when it comes."


In the United States, human plague is most common in parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, California, Oregon and Nevada.


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plague


(Credit: CDC[13] )

As the Verge's Adrianne Jeffries notes, the plague is much worse outside the U.S[14] . Citing World Health Organization estimates[15] , Jeffries writes:


[T]here are thousands of cases of human plague a year in central, eastern and southern Africa, South America and in large areas of Asia, and mortality rates are much higher in some areas with poorer access to health care. There is a vaccine available, but it is rare and only available to professionals who are at high risk of exposure.

If you live in a plague-prone region, the CDC recommends taking steps to prevent catching the disease[16] , such as keeping away from rodents and taking precautions against fleas.


People typically contract the plague after getting bitten by rodent fleas or handling infected animals. Last year, a 7-year-old girl in Colorado contracted the plague[17] after coming into contact with a dead squirrel, and a 59-year-old Oregon man caught the disease[18] as he attempted to remove a dead mouse from his cat's throat. Both survived, though the man lost his fingers and toes to infection.


As USA Today notes, the response to cases of plague in the U.S. is swift[19] . The CDC's Ken Gage told the newspaper that states where plague is relatively common "are quite good at responding quickly" and have effective programs in place to control the spread of the disease.


Ultimately, Gage says that we shouldn't be too scared of the plague, but insists that we cannot be blasé about it either.


"We don't expect the plague to spread all over [the United States], but you can have localized outbreaks. The risks are not astronomically high but the risks are higher than normal," he told HuffPost. "The plague's very rare but if you get it, and you don't seek treatment quickly enough or if the medical professionals you see don't know what it is, you can die. If you know you're in an area where there's a plague outbreak, you must take precautions."


Visit the CDC website to learn more about the plague in the United States. [20]



Also on HuffPost:




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  • Bubonic Plague


    Yes, the black plague -- responsible for <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/mall_aug99.html?c=y&page=2" target="_hplink">killing 56 million people in Europe the 14th century</a> -- is still around, but it isn't as deadly or prevalent as it was in Medieval times. Dr. Robert Gaynes, an infectious disease expert at Emory University and author of the book <a href="http://estore.asm.org/viewItemDetails.asp?ItemID=1036" target="_hplink">Germ Theory: Medical Pioneers in Infectious Diseases</a>, said that people contract the disease when they gain access to previously undistrubed ecosystems, thereby making "these types of diseases become evident as a result of animal contact."

    These days, the disease is most commonly spread by bites from fleas that are infected with Yersinia pestis. When the bacteria enters into a person's skin, it leads to headache, chills, and <a href="http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/plague/factsheet.asp" target="_hplink">swollen lymph glands</a>, according to the CDC. Early <a href="http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/plague/factsheet.asp" target="_hplink">treatment with antibiotics</a> is essential for survival, as the disease can cause respiratory failure and shock if left untreated.

    Every year, about 1,000 to 3,000 <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/10/first-case-of-bubonic-plague-in-2011-appears-in-new-mexico/" target="_hplink">bubonic plague cases</a> occur around the world, with 10 to 20 of those cases in the United States, <em>TIME</em> reported. The first 2011 case of bubonic plague was confirmed in May in a New Mexico man.

    The reason is murky for why black plague seems to be less deadly today than in the Medieval times, Weinberg said, but it probably has to do with more rats and unclean living conditions back then, as well as a lack of appropriate medicines. In addition, the bacteria back then may be different from the current form, he added.




  • Scarlet Fever


    <a href="http://www.medicinenet.com/scarlet_fever/article.htm#history" target="_hplink">Scarlet fever</a> was among the rash of diseases that commonly afflicted people in the 19th century (alongside yellow fever, rubella and measles), according to MedicineNet. Scarlet fever most often afflicts children, causing rash and fever.

    Fortunately, scarlet fever is a lot less common today than it was centuries ago, but it still can be deadly. Today, we now know that scarlet fever is just a form of group A streptococcus (strep), Weinberg said. But instead of just turning into a regular case of strep throat, scarlet fever manifests as a red skin rash.

    With antibiotics, the disease is easily treated, though complications can occur that <a href="http://www.medicinenet.com/scarlet_fever/article.htm#history" target="_hplink">can lead to sepsis</a> (bacteria in the blood, tissue or bone), according to MedicineNet. Just this summer, Reuters reported that a Hong Kong kindergarten was closed after tests revealed that a child there may have <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/21/us-scarletfever-china-idUSTRE75K14Q20110621" target="_hplink">died from scarlet fever</a>. Scarlet fever is relatively common in that part of the world, but this year a Hong Kong health department spokesman told Reuters that there seem to be more cases of it this year than in past years.




  • Whooping Cough


    <a href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09-20/bay-area/30178479_1_whooping-cough-booster-shots-childhood-vaccine" target="_hplink">Whooping cough</a>, caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacteria, was a common illness among children in the early 1900s, according to HealthCentral. However, when the vaccine for whooping cough was introduced in the 1940s, cases dropped. But while whooping cough cases are still dramatically lower than 50 years ago, there are still cases that persist today possibly because the vaccine against the disease doesn't provide lasting protection later in life, Weinberg said.

    Another reason is that older people seem to be able to carry whooping cough in their throats without actually getting sick (due to being vaccinated at a younger age), but that whooping cough is then passed on to infants who haven't yet been vaccinated against the disease, Gaynes said.

    "This problem has led to a recent recommendation by [the] CDC to have adults get TDAP once as adults (it contains pertussis in the vaccine) and not just a tetanus booster, which is needed every ten years," Gaynes told HuffPost.

    Recent research presented just last month shows that the <a href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09-20/bay-area/30178479_1_whooping-cough-booster-shots-childhood-vaccine" target="_hplink">protection from the whooping cough vaccine</a> is decreased dramatically once a child reaches age 8 or 9, the <em>San Francisco Chronicle</em> reported.

    <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/features/pertussis/" target="_hplink">Whooping cough is very contagious</a> -- spread by cough and sneezing -- and is so named because of the sound people who have it make when they cough. Last year, 27,550 people had whooping cough in the United States, according to the CDC. The disease is the deadliest for babies, as it can lead to pneumonia, convulsions and even death.




  • Polio


    Polio, the paralysis-causing disease that afflicted former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, isn't completely gone from the world today. However, it has been eliminated from the western world, Weinberg said. The Mayo Clinic reports that the last known <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/polio/DS00572" target="_hplink">case of polio in the U.S.</a> was in 1979.

    Polio is still present in <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs114/en/" target="_hplink">Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria</a>, where unrest and dangerous conditions can make it more difficult to get everyone vaccinated against the disease, according to the World Health Organization. Recently, the WHO reported that a dangerous strain of polio -- called wild poliovirus type 1 -- had <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/20/polio-china-pakistan_n_971787.html" target="_hplink">made its way from Pakistan to China</a>.

    Polio<a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/polio/DS00572" target="_hplink"> causes paralysis</a> and can make it hard to breathe, the Mayo Clinic reported. It can even lead to death.




  • Gout


    Gout has been known throughout history as the "<a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/1700s/1700sfood.html" target="_hplink">disease of kings</a>" and the "rich man's disease," as it was most commonly seem among the gluttonous rich in the 1700 and 1800s, according to the British Library. Gout is considered an ancient form of <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/arthritis/basics/gout.htm" target="_hplink">inflammatory arthritis</a>, and is caused by metabolic disorder that has not been properly controlled. It occurs when uric acid crystals build up in tissues and fluids, thereby leading to a red, swollen joint that is very painful, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The condition is most common in overweight men and women who have gone through menopause.

    Gout rates have <a href="http://arthritis.webmd.com/news/20101110/gout-cases-on-the-rise-in-u-s" target="_hplink">been on the rise</a> since the 1960s, with cases doubling between 1960 and 1990 and then continuing to rise through 2008, according to WebMD. More than 8 million Americans currently have gout.

    WebMD reported that the <a href="http://arthritis.webmd.com/news/20101110/gout-cases-on-the-rise-in-u-s" target="_hplink">rise in gout cases</a> may be due to people living longer, as the condition is seen in women only after they have passed menopause. In addition, "you can go years with hyperuricemia and no symptoms. But at some point, enough uric acid accumulates to have a flare-up of gout, so if you're living longer you are more likely to reach that threshold," gout expert Dr. John S. Sundy told WebMD.

    In addition, Gaynes speculated that it may not even be that gout rates are actually rising -- rather, detection and diagnosis may have improved throughout the years.