Plague returns as deadly threat

Reuters ^ | 15 Jan 2008 | Reuters

[CholeraJoe]

That’s not new. I heard the same thing about the origin of syphilis years ago. I guess it was a fair trade. The Indians gave Europe syphilis and Europeans gave them smallpox.

[Smokin' Joe]

If I remember correctly, the Bubonic Plague is still carried by rodents in the deserts in the US (Utah and the region), but I'd have to look that up.

You remember correctly. The much loved (by mewling liberal envirotypes) Prairie Dog is one such carrier.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Some researchers feel that Bubonic plague was not the cause, or only cause, of the Black Death. Some symptoms and modes of transmission do not fit the pattern of Yersinia pestis. )There are three types of this plague, by the way, bubonic, spread by rates and easily treated with antibiotics if caught early, pneumonic which infects the lungs and can be spread person to person, and septicemic in which there is bleeding into the skin and other organs.

Other candidates for the black death are something like anthrax or hemorrhagic fever.

Return of the Black Death

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

If I remember correctly, the Bubonic Plague is still carried by rodents in the deserts in the US (Utah and the region), but I'd have to look that up.

Yes, we have it here in New Mexico. Every summer there a few cats that die of it, once in a while a person gets it.

[SunkenCiv]

Achoo!