A child in Idaho was treated for plague -- the first human case in the state in 26 years

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post



By Lindsey Bever
June 13 at 3:49 PM

A boy in Idaho is recovering after contracting plague — the first human case in the state in more than two decades, health officials say.

Christine Myron, a spokeswoman for the Central District Health Department, said Wednesday that the child, who has not been publicly identified, is back home in Elmore County and “doing well” after being treated with antibiotics in the hospital. The child became ill late last month and, earlier this week, health authorities received laboratory confirmation that he had bubonic plague, Myron said.

Bubonic plague is the most common form and known for causing swollen lymph nodes or buboes, according to the World Health Organization. Pneumonic plague, which is based in the lungs, “is the most virulent form of plague” and “can be fatal” when not diagnosed and treated early on, according to the WHO.

It is still unclear whether the child in Elmore County was exposed to the disease in Idaho or during a recent trip to Oregon, according to the Central District Health Department. It said that in 2015 and 2016, the disease was discovered in ground squirrels in Elmore County as well as nearby Ada County. No cases have been reported this year.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/13/a-child-in-idaho-was-treated-for-plague-the-first-human-case-in-the-state-in-26-years/

[Yavin4]

1. It's official. We are regressing as a nation.

Regressing back to the point before we were even a nation.

[colorado_ufo]

2. Plague has never gone away.

Prairie dogs have fleas that can carry it.

[Dave Starsky]

3. Idaho is the most backward shithole state in the US.

It has pretty trees.

Don't judge the entire US based on Idaho.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. As post #2 noted, prairie dogs and other critters have gotten it in the SW

which has been reported about for decades. E.g., an article from 1988 - http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-10-30/news/8802110464_1_prairie-dogs-bubonic-plague-rodents

What is surprising is this case with it found all the way up in Idaho (or, per the article, possibly Oregon) because most of the cases I've seen reported in the news are in Texas or Arizona or New Mexico.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Oh, heck. We get a handful of plague cases every single year

in New Mexico.

The essential problem everywhere else is that it's so rare that most doctors simply won't recognize it very quickly. If treated as soon as possible, most people survive.

We have a science fiction con every year in Albuquerque called Bubonicon. I tell people that it means exactly what you think it means. It's a salute to the fact that plague is endemic here, and as I said we usually get a few cases every year, although so far this year there have been three dog cases, no human ones.