LA Woman Hospitalized With Bubonic Plague

[Judi Lynn]

LA Woman Hospitalized With Bubonic Plague

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 18, 2006
Filed at 10:27 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A woman was hospitalized earlier this month with bubonic plague, the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County in more than two decades, health officials said Tuesday.

The woman, who was not identified, was admitted April 13 with a fever, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. A blood test confirmed she had contracted the bacterial disease. The woman was placed on antibiotics and is in stable condition, officials said.

Bubonic plague is not contagious, but if left untreated it can morph into pneumonic plague, which can be spread from person to person. Bubonic plague is usually transmitted to humans from the bites of fleas infected by dead rodents.

Health officials suspect the woman was exposed to fleas in her central Los Angeles home, said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county's director of public health. The woman's family was also placed on antibiotics as a precaution, but there's no evidence they were infected.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bubonic-Plague.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[bemildred]

1. Watch out for squirrels and bats, too. nt

[kestrel91316]

20. It's only the GROUND squirrels. Oh, and bats have absolutely NOTHING

to do with plague.

[bemildred]

23. Bats have rabies.

Go ahead, play with bats if you want to.

[kestrel91316]

24. No need to warn me about bats. I am the vet who last diagnosed a

case of domestic animal rabies here in Los Angeles. And we ALWAYS worry about our local bats, who have a high incidence of rabies. But it has nothing whatsoever to do with plague.

[bemildred]

25. I never said it did.

It was just a public service announcement for the noobs around here. They are always surprised that the cute critters can make you sick. Since you are a vet, I expect you are far more informed about that than I.

[LiberalPartisan]

2. Was she in contact with Dubya?

He's certainly a carrier.

[Mabus]

6. Maybe she came in contact with Ahhhhnold

It wouldn't be the first time the Gropinator got a little too friendly with an unsuspecting woman.

[theophilus]

3. The GOP, building a bridge to the 14th Century! n/t

[Ecumenist]

4. Plague is endemic in many parts of the Western states..

[kineneb]

16. Yup. Don't pet the wild squirrels or chipmunks.

California has had endemic plague in the rodent population for some time. Hikers and campers are warned every year to avoid contact with rodents, as they are carriers (actually, their fleas are carriers). No big deal, except for the victim and the people who have to treat her. The problem comes when the plague goes into its far more contagious pneumonic form- that is when it can jump from person to person without the flea or rodent vectors.

ah, the things one learns with a Medieval Studies minor...

[Ecumenist]

18. EXACTLY...

that's what I was wondering about. Did she have the "regular" form or the far more dangerous and CONTAGIOUS Pneumonic form? Creepy. That's what I was saying about the fact that it's suspected that she contracted it from a vector in her HOUSE!!

[kestrel91316]

21. She has the regular form (bubonic), where you get those VERY ICKY

and NASTY HUGE black swollen lymph nodes that abscess and rupture.

Gaaaccckkkkkk!!!!!!

Oh well, it could have been worse. At least this form is treatable.

[Ecumenist]

26. The lovely buboes, full of necrotic tissue... Ahh..

From this lovely traipse through the medieval era of sister Yersinia, we get the children's nurdery rhyme.."Ring around the rosies; pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down".

[kestrel91316]

27. Some say it was originally "Atchoo, atchoo, we all fall down" because

of sneezing/coughing with initial respiratory infection. Don't know if this factually correct.

"Ring around the rosey" was for the red ring of infection around the original flea bite.

"Pocket full of posey" was either a remark on protective bundles of herbs carried in one's pocket, or a comment on a bulge in one's pants caused by an inguinal bubo.

[Ecumenist]

29. Yes, that right...

The pocket of posies and the phonetic imitation represents the sneezing of the intitial infection as well as the red ring. I do't know about the bulge in the pants because people didn't wear pants as we understrand them. they were more like puffy bloomers and more often something akin to gown like attire for men. But you would definitely see the buboes under the mandible and in the neck. Lovely, I sure...

[grannylib]

5. Sounds like tonight's episode of "House." It's the only thing I can bring

myself to watch on Fox.

[mmonk]

9. Yeah, just got through watching it.

Pretty ironic.

[Beaverhausen]

17. How bizarre is this?

I watched too and thought...oh, they are really stretching to find storylines these days!

:scared:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. "An estimated 10 to 20 Americans contract plague each year

mostly in rural communities. About one in seven cases is fatal, according to federal statistics.

The last human cases of plague in Los Angeles County occurred in 1984 when three people contracted the disease. Two of those cases were travel-related and the third involved a person exposed to a sick animal. All three survived."

10-20 cases per year.

Every year in the United States, on average:

5% to 20% of the population gets the flu;
more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications, and;
about 36,000 people die from flu.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm


Bird Flu deaths in the US - 0

[Up2Late]

13. Wow, you don't hear that reported on "the news"

NPR just reported this, and a Canadian Paper (that you have to pay them a fee to access) reported she died, but they are the only one.

<http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=0c8eaee6-0bd8-433c-8d34-55f5d098390b>

[Warpy]

8. We get a few cases a year here in NM, which is an endemic

plague state. Generally, the transmission is from dogs and cats that have been out killing infected mice and walked home with their fleas. It's treatable with antibiotics.

[NMDemDist2]

10. yup we get several cases a year here in AZ too usually

rarely fatal unless the person is weak or immune compromised in some way

[Crunchy Frog]

11. We get a case in Colorado every so often.

It's endemic in the prairie dog population.

[politicat]

12. Ft Collins (CO) has the CDC's Plague Center.

Yersinia pestis does pretty well in the rodent populations in the dry Western climates. There are a couple fatal cases of pneumonic every year or so, when someone treats bubonic as the flu (the symptoms are really similar in early days) and fails to get gamma globulin and streptomyacin in time.

Don't play with the prairie dogs, and be careful about fleas.

I'm actually surprised that the docs looked for it. Plague is hard to diagnose if you don't know what you're looking for. There are a lot of other diseases that do the same things and are more common.

[Zhade]

14. To quote Lewis Black...

"We're going BACKWARDS! We're going fucking backwards!"

[Megahurtz]

15. It's True! We ARE Back in the Middle Ages!!!

:silly:

[Yoda Yada]

19. Testing. 1-2-3 PANIC! Testing. 1-2-3 PANIC!

Oh, how they love to keep the public in panic mode. I expect tonight's leading questions will be..

ARE YOUR CHILDREN SAFE?
IS THE COUNTY PREPARED?
HOW CAN WE PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BUBONIC PLAGUE?

Half-truths are so powerful. I heard this report on NBC News (L.A.). Chuck Henry gave the report, BUT...BEFORE he said anything he stated, Don't worry...it is NOT contagious". THAT is what needs to be reported along with the rest of the information...Don't worry...it is NOT contagious!

It seems some stations will do anything to panic the people and keep them glued to their TV for more information. Makes me sick.:puke:

Quite simply, in ths case, it is not contagious.
Thank you Chuck Henry.B-)

[kestrel91316]

22. Bubonic plague is actually contagious. But it does not readily spread

to casual contacts. The pus in the abscessed lymph nodes is HIGHLY infectious, hence the special handling of these patients in hospitals. And if it goes septicemic then blood/bodily fluids can spread it, and if it goes pneumonic then it spreads via respiratory secretions.

A VERY dangerous disease, but less so if caught and treated early.

This is the part where we all get down on our knees and thank all the clever people who discovered antibiotics.

[Lisa]

28. it's been found in the vicinity of Seattle ...

There's been speculation that if there were a major quake here, the resulting ecological and social disruption could result in a Y. pestis outbreak in the human population.