Plague kills 37-year-old man in Arizona

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 21, 2008

[george76]

One day last October, Eric York lugged the carcass of an adult mountain lion from his truck and laid it carefully on a tarp on the floor of his garage.

The female mountain lion had a bloody nose, but her hide bore no other signs of trauma. York, a biologist at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, found the big cat lying motionless near the canyon’s South Rim. He was determined to learn why she died. Because the park lacks a forensics lab, he did the postmortem in his garage, in a village of about 2,000 park employees.

Epidemic experts can only speculate about what happened next. When York cut into the lion, he must have released a cloud of bacteria and breathed in. On Nov. 2, York was found dead, a 21st century victim of plague, the disease that in the Middle Ages turned Europe into a vast mortuary. He was 37.

The case mirrors events that have promoted a global surge in epidemics, among them influenza, HIV, West Nile virus and SARS. A study out this year in the journal Nature reported that about 60 percent of epidemics begin when a microbe makes the leap from an animal into a human.

‘‘What will be the next emerging disease? The one we least expect,’’ says David Morens of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Although plague is endemic west of the Mississippi - brought here in the 1800s by flea-infested rats on ships ferrying Chinese railroad workers to the USA - York had little reason to suspect it.

[george76]

‘‘Pneumonic plague is a highly fatal disease,’’ .

‘‘The death rate can be as high as 50 percent even with treatment.’’

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Undocumented Mountain Lion Spreading Disease Bump?

[george76]

If it’s in a black plastic bag, don’t open it.

It isn’t dinner.

[valkyry1]

That could have been the start of a horrible epidemic

[SkyShot]

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

[prolifefirst]

Cool article. I hope people will read it all.

[jazusamo]

Read about this yesterday and am at a loss for words that a wildlife biologist would be this careless, especially in an area that the disease is not uncommon.

[BuffaloJack]

Pneumonic plague is an airborne version of bubonic plague.
38 years ago when I was in the service, I got bubonic plague from defective vaccine administered when I got my immunizations updated. 23 days in the hospital and I lost 65 pounds. I never want to do that again, but I was lucky, it was not in my lungs.

[Eagles6]

Way down in the article we finally see that "Although plague is endemic west of the Mississippi"

Interesting but nothing to get excited about.

[NRA2BFree]

Hardly a year goes by that we don't have at least one person infected by the plague, and often one death from it. It's very common in northwest NM and AZ. I think it's because so many of us live in rural areas that we come into contact with it more often. Rule number one is that you never touch a dead animal.

It must have been a horrible death for this man. Prayers go out to his family.

[prolifefirst]

That could have been the start of a horrible epidemic

The article should have directly addressed why the disease hasn't been an issue in the industrial world for centuries.

It did tell us indirectly, however, in saying that we have shots for it and that rodents need to die off first for the flea carriers to move to humans.

[Jeff Chandler]

York, a biologist...found the big cat lying motionless... plague is endemic west of the Mississippi...York had little reason to suspect it.

So, what exactly do the universities teach biologists?

[Billthedrill]

Pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic plagues are the same organism with different loci of infection. Pneumonic can run up to 90% fatal, not 50, in the absence of treatment.

The good news is that modern antibiotics can handle it fairly well. The bad news is that you have to be careful not to kill the patient while you're curing him.

It's endemic throughout the West, mostly the Southwest. Don't touch dead animals, especially prairie dogs. And if you see a tall guy dressed in black carrying a scythe, don't let him cough on you.

[LucyT]

Thanks for the ping, George76.

Pinging ye.

[gleeaikin]

Bubonic plague has three forms: bubonic (characterized by blackened swollen lymph glands especially under the arms), pneumonic (a lung form), and septicemic (a blood form often found in people with weak immune systems). Danial Defoe’s “Journal of the Plague Years” is a fascinating but grim read. In earlier years bubonic was about 50% fatal, pneumonic about 95% fatal and septicemic almost always fatal. The last figure I heard was that BP is endemic in the wild rodent population of 17 western states in the USA.

Another emerging disease seems to be related to mad cow disease. It has been found in elk in the upper midwest. It may be moving east.

[Don Corleone]

So, what exactly do the universities teach biologists?

To vote for Socialists!

[RobinOfKingston]

From the article:

York was widely known for trapping and collaring big cats to study their movements and protect them from encroaching on humans, says Charles Higgens, director of public health for the National Park Service.

Curious phraseology.

[gleeaikin]

“rodents need to die off first for the flea carriers to move to houmans.”

In the plague years the rat in question was usually the black (or brown, I forget) rat which lived in attics and upper stories of homes. It has been mostly replaced by the Norwegian Rat which is a basement/ground dweller. So, we have less common living area problems and also better sanitation.

[george76]

I often try to warn people to be careful.

Many of them do not believe it is possible.

Rabies too.