Four cases of plague have been confirmed in the US state of New Mexico.
The state’s Department of Health has confirmed a second case of human plague in Santa Fe County, in a 73-year-old lady. The lady was hospitalised, but is recovering. In the first case a 52-year-old woman died.
The other two cases involved a 65-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman from Bernalillo County. There have also been eight cases of plague reported in dogs and cats in the state.
Plague is a potentially fatal illness in people that is caused by a bacteria found in rodents, especially ground squirrels, rabbits and pack rats. Most human cases of plague are acquired through the bite of infected fleas. Dogs and cats are also susceptible to plague and are infected either through bites of infected fleas or by eating an animal that has died from the disease.
“Several of our plague cases this year have most likely been exposed to plague-infected rodent fleas brought into the home and bedroom by dogs and cats that are allowed to roam and hunt and aren’t treated with a flea-control product,” said Paul Ettestad, state public health veterinarian with the Department of Health.
Symptoms of plague in people usually develop two to eight days after exposure. Plague symptoms are sudden fever, chills, headaches, and swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin areas. As previously stated, in some cases, infection may progress without swollen lymph nodes making it harder to diagnose.
Plague has occurred in three great (known) pandemics (widespread epidemics over time) during the last 15 centuries. The first recorded pandemic, known as Justinian’s Plague, began
in East Africa.
It started around 540 AD and spread north to the entire Mediterranean region. it is estimated this pandemic lasted 50 to 60 years and claimed 40 million lives (out of an estimated world population of slightly more than 260 million people).
The second pandemic, which occurred during the 14th century, became known as the infamous ‘Black Death’. It arose in central Asia and spread through China, India, and eventually by
trading ships to the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Unlike the first pandemic, which
was probably almost entirely flea-borne, the Black Death also caught explosive outbreaks of primary pnemonic plague.
This is an airborne form of the disease that can be passed directly from person to person by
coughing and is virtually always fatal unless promptly treated with appropriate antibiotics, which were non-existent in the 14th century. It is estimated that one fourth to one third of Europe’s population, or about 25 million people, died in this pandemic.
The modern pandemic began in southwest China in the latter part of the 19th century, and
spread to Canton and Hong Kong by 1984.
From Hong Kong the disease was carried by rats on ships to Calcutta and Bombay by 1896, and to San Francisco in 1899. It eventually reached every continent except Antarctica.
The modern pandemic did not produce the tremendous mortality and social chaos associated with the two previous pandemics.
But it did result in an expansion of the natural distribution of the the plague to North America.
It was also during this time that the etiologic agent of plague, the bacteria Yersinia pestis, was
identified, and transmission by fleas was proven.
