7-year-old girl contracts bubonic plague, has seizure and 107-degree fever, but survives

Associated Press ^ | 09/05/2012 03:56:26 PM PDT | Catherine Tsai,

[BenLurkin]

DENVER -- The parents of 7-year-old Sierra Jane Downing thought she had the flu when she felt sick days after camping in southwest Colorado.

It wasn't until she had a seizure that her father knew something was seriously wrong and rushed her to a hospital in their town of Pagosa Springs.

"I didn't know what was going on. I just reacted," Sean Downing said. "I thought she died."

An emergency room doctor who saw Sierra Jane for the seizure and a 107-degree fever late Aug. 24 wasn't sure what the cause was either and called other hospitals before the girl was flown to Denver.

There, a pediatric doctor at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children racing to save Sierra Jane's life got the first inkling that she had bubonic plague. Dr. Jennifer Snow suspected the disease based on the girl's symptoms, a history of where she'd been, and an online journal's article on a teen with similar symptoms.

Dr. Wendi Drummond, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the hospital, agreed and ordered a specific antibiotic for Sierra Jane while tests were run, later confirming their rare diagnosis.

It was the first bubonic plague case Snow and her colleagues had seen.

"I credit them for thinking outside the box," said Dr. Tracy Butler, medical director of the hospital's pediatric intensive unit.

The bubonic plague hasn't been confirmed in a human in Colorado since 2006, when four cases were reported.

Federal health officials say they are aware of two other confirmed and one probable case of plague in the U.S. so far this year -- an average year. The other confirmed cases were in New Mexico and Oregon, and the probable case also was in Oregon. None died.

[GeronL]

bubonic plague?

[Uri’el-2012]

bubonic plague?

Carried by fleas on rodents, such as prairie dogs.

[stephenjohnbanker]

I thought this went away 100 years ago.

[discostu]

Nope. There’s lots of places it’s still around. A few in southern AZ. If you go hiking in the right parts of the country you’ll see signs that say if you get flu like symptoms in the next two weeks go straight to your doctor and say “black plague”.

[TribalPrincess2U]

But is there a vaccine for it?

[stephenjohnbanker]

Thanks for the info.

[submarinerswife]

Isn’t it highly infectious?

Something tells me it has the potential to wipe out half of Europe? It could kill peasants, nobles, kings and aEmperorer or two.

[Gamecock]

I thought this went away 100 years ago.

It is something that pops up out West every so often.

An don't get me started about India.

[PCRit]

There is no vaccine. It’s caused by the bacterium, Yersinia Pestis which is carried by fleas. It is treated with antibiotics (cipro, doxycycline, etc). Prairie dogs are the main carrier of the Y. Pestis infected fleas in the west/southwest.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Had the potential. We are all the descendants of survivors of the great plague. Our ancestors were either 1) immune, 2) survived the infection and gained a measure of immunity, or 3) were never exposed to the infection. I think this gives the present population some degree of immunity. Modern antibiotics can cure it if used soon enough.

A certain percentage of humans are immune to ebola.

[BuffaloJack]

> But is there a vaccine for it?
Sure there is. I received the vaccine in 1970 along with 2 other GIs. We needed to get our immunizations updated before we could go on R&R. All 3 of us wound up in the Vung Tau Airfield Hospital with plague. They gave us penicillin for the first week and it had no effect. They changed to streptomycin after that and it cured us. I spend 24 days in the hospital.

[Alter Kaker]

Who will be the first to blame the Jews?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

**** and rushed her to a hospital in their town of Pagosa Springs. ****

There is a hospital in Pagosa Springs? When I lived there the nearest hospital was Durango or Farmington NM.

Pagosa only had a temporary clinic.

[JimSEA]

The scary part, to me, is the massive overuse of antibiotics both here and in South and East Asia where all kinds of antibiotics are sold over the counter in pharmacies. There will soon be nothing to treat the drug resistant strain. Bubonic Plague included.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I still have my vaccine booklet from 1968. It shows I received plague vaccine before deploying to Asia. I had no problems with it.

[Joe 6-pack]

Yep. I got the Bubonic Plague vaccine before going to Korea in ‘95. Along with Japanese Encephilitis and a whole bunch of other shots for stuff I’ve never heard of...

[bgill]

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that a series of frightening illnesses linked to insects and pests have been surfacing lately across the country, including mosquito-borne West Nile virus outbreaks in Texas and other states

Despite Texas having the worst drought in recent history last summer and still barely any rain this summer, the mosquitoes are horrendous these days. You simply can't go outside in the evenings.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

There is but there are so few cases of it here in the US that more people would die from the vaccine then would die from the plague if they were left unvaccinated.

Risk/Reward is out of balance. Same reason they don't vaccinate for Smallpox anymore.

[vickixxxx]

When I saw the word camping, the first thing I thought was tick borne illness. They didn’t mention ticks in the article. Ticks carry over 10 diseases, with Lyme being the number one vector- borne disease in the country.