Via Vox.com, Julia Belluz writes: An Oregon teenager was just diagnosed with bubonic plague. Here's what you need to know. Excerpt:
A teenage girl in Oregon has been hospitalized after contracting the bubonic plague, according to state officials.
The state department of health reported that the girl acquired the disease from a flea bite while on a hunting trip. She fell sick by October 21 and was hospitalized in Bend on October 24, where she remains in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
Plague is an extremely rare disease, though there has been more activity in the US than usual of late. Every year, the US records about a dozen plague deaths. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 11 cases and three deaths in six states in just five months, between April and August.
In Oregon, only eight human cases have been diagnosed since 1995, and no deaths have been reported.
