Biological weapons of mass destruction??
Posted on 05/01/2007 7:22:29 AM PDT by NYer
DENVER - Six dead tree squirrels found near the Denver Zoo and City Park have tested positive for bubonic plague, the state health department reported Friday.
Experts say it is unusual to find the disease in the center of a city. Caused by a bacterium, plague is transmitted from rodent to rodent by infected fleas. Humans can catch the disease through scratches, bites and coughs.
"The risk of Denver residents contracting plague is extremely low," said John Pape, an epidemiologist who specializes in animal-related diseases for the health department's disease control division.
Symptoms in humans include high fever, fatigue, weakness and a painful, swollen lymph node, typically under the armpit, in the groin area or in the neck. The disease can be treated with antibiotics if recognized early.
Since plague was rediscovered in the Colorado in 1957, state health officials said there have been 58 human cases, with nine of those cases being fatal.
Pape said, "With the addition of the hot line and better mapping techniques, we have tools that didn't exist five years ago for tracking plague. We will use this opportunity to test whether this method can improve our ability to quickly and accurately track where the disease may be occurring. We are asking citizens throughout the metropolitan area to assist in this effort by making a simple phone call."
The number to report animals who may have the disease is 1-877-462-2911.
Plague was identified last year in wild animals from 25 Colorado counties, said Pape. Cats were the main victims.
--- On the Net: Health Department http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/dc/Zoonosis/plague/index.html.
Biological weapons of mass destruction??
ping
Yeah, bubonic plague must have fallen down from a couple of bad acorns...
The only thing similar in modern times was the "Spanish" influenza during and after WWI when many more people died of the flu than they did because of the war.
That's a thought worth considering, but I would be skeptical. Plague has been around since before Mohamed was molesting children.
I’ve never seen a squirrel cough; but I’ve seen a bar fly.
I’m sure this happens occasionally and is no real cause for alarm. Anyone who has been to the Garden of the Gods has seen the park signs warning visitors not to touch the live animals due to plague risks.
As the article says, the plague has been known to exist in Colorado for over 50 years.
Very doubtful any mass spreading of plague is going on by terrorists although after your post one of them may have gotten a new idea!
Which brings up another thought, I wonder if terrorists monitor this web site?
“Just another isolated incident.”
“Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.”
Yeap. If the idiots around here wouldn’t insist on gobbling up land to preserve the prairie dog populations (over population), this wouldn’t be happening.
Brought it on themselves. When I moved here from NM, I was shocked they actually had public land set aside for the rodents. Had they never heard of the plague?
In related news, political pundits are referring to the recent Democratic debate as the Boobonic Plague....
Well, at least there’s some good news!
**put’s on flameproof suit, ducks and runs**
You should be ashamed (cough, cough). I'd cyber-slap you if I wasn't laughing so hard.:)
"But I'm not dead, yet!"
"Well, you will be soon!"
The Black Plague appears to have originated in Central America, spread to Iceland through trade, and then to Europe a year later, and eventually arrived in China. This of course is the opposite direction from what is taught in Gummint school as well as before the official date of discovery of America. Bubonic plague is still in America, which is where it always was.
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