Bubonic plague hits LA

Herald Sun ^ | 19 April 2006

[Aussie Dasher]

A CASE of bubonic plague has been reported in the second largest US city, Los Angeles, for the first time in 22 years, health officials said today.

An unidentified woman came down last week with symptoms of the disease, known as the Black Death, when it devastatingly swept across Europe in the 14th century. Health officials said they believed the infected woman, who remains in hospital, was exposed to fleas in the area around her house and stressed it was unlikely the rare disease would spread.

"Bubonic plague is not usually transmissible from person to person," Jonathan Fielding, head of Los Angeles County public health, said.

Mr Fielding explained the disease is not uncommon among animals such as squirrels but seldom spreads to humans.

"Fortunately, human plague infection is rare in urban environments, and this single case should not be a cause for alarm in the area where this occurred," he said.

Health officials investigating the source of the disease set traps to catch squirrels and other wild animals in the area near where the woman lives.

Blood tests will be performed on any animals caught to determine if they were exposed to the plague bacteria.

Plague symptoms include fever, muscle aches, nausea, headache, sore throat, fatigue and swollen, tender lymph nodes associated with the arm or leg that has flea bites.

The disease is treatable with antibiotics, medical experts said.

[sit-rep]

heheheheeeeee!!

[Calvin Locke]

I surfed upon a Discovery show on survival. It was in some sort of US desert canyon. The host set traps of
flat stones hoping to get something, which turned out to be some type of prairie dog, iirc.

"You want to cook it thoroughly since they do carry bubonic plague..."

[Mannaggia l'America]

LA's been hit with boob-onic plague for years....

[Tax-chick]

They never warned us about plague with prairie dogs in Oklahoma, so it might be regional infections. Makes me worry sometimes about my daughter's pet gerbil, though :-).

[TexasTransplant]

Cordon the area off, Residents Que up in single file, Illegals are immediately Quarantined implanted with a chip and then sent to Country of Origin for Treatment without the possibility of ever returning, all others treated, then fumigate the City.

Those that don't Que up Die or are turned in.
Don't ever Elect me for ANY Public Office, I will run it like a Farm or a Ranch, (cull, ship/sell, and propagate)
WIN WIN WIN

[spectre]

By coincidence, tonights episode of "House" showed a girl that was almost surely dead because she caught the plague from her dog's fleas.

I wouldn't want to die that way.

sw

[festus]

Dang. That ipod ain't going to fall out anytime soon.....

[azhenfud]

Can you believe Califoreignia infested with RATS? who'da thunkit?

[TexasTransplant]

>>>>"Dang. That ipod ain't going to fall out anytime soon....."<<<<

If it did, I'm not gonna touch it. That thing gives cooties a bad name and there isn't enough Latex on the Planet to make me change my mind.

TT

[Jaysun]

Go S.O.T.A.

South of Tuscon Arizona? That's Chinese to me.

I've read where some use a nebulizer and CS. FWIW.

I use a nasal spray bottle. Simply drinking it has little effect unless you hold it in your mouth for a while.

[cva66snipe]

More cats, for sure! I could say a lot about this, but let me just emphasize that large cat populations really do lead to a low flea population.

LOL forget the cats send in the real experts in the field. No cat can touch this fine dogs kill ratio. The Rat Terrier or Feist is the master of the art. They make very fine pets also and are great with kids :>}

[Eastbound]

South of Tucson. Heh. That's good.

Guess I shoulda been more clear. I haven't purchased anything for a few years, so I checked out their site again just a bit ago and was surprised to see they re-vamped and re-engineered everything they used to sell. Can't vouch for anything they have now, but wouldn't hesitate getting some of their stuff if I had a need. Yeah, it''s expensive. Interesting offerings. Here's the link:

SOTA

[Eastbound]

"Dang. That ipod ain't going to fall out anytime soon....."

What ipod?

;>

[Centurion2000]

An unidentified woman came down last week with symptoms of the disease, known as the Black Death, when it devastatingly swept across Europe in the 14th century. Health officials said they believed the infected woman, who remains in hospital, was exposed to fleas in the area around her house and stressed it was unlikely the rare disease would spread.

100 to one odds she is an illegal.

[FrogBurger]

Right. Another interesting theory is that in parallel with the microbial epidemic, a lot of people were suffering from a form of rye ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus that contains various toxins, including mind-altering lysergic acid (from which LSD is derived). Prolonged consumption of ergot-contaminated rye would cause ergotism, a disease with symptoms similar to the plague, including a form of gangrene. Also, ergot weakens the immune system. People with ergotism and a weakened immune system would be more likely to catch whatever infectious disease are floating around.

The year of the Great Plague started with a wet spring, with is ideal for development of ergot. And since rye was a staple food, it's not hard to see a connection.

[Centurion2000]

Most cats kill any fleas that get on them, provided the base flea population is reasonably low

How ?

[I got the rope]

LOL.

[Theo]

A consequence of illegal immigration, I wonder?

[nmh]

Was she messing around with rodents, or something?

[null and void]

*sigh* I just did something I've never done before. I stomped a rat to death in my own front yard. YUCK!

First one I've seen here. Hope it's my last.