I understand the naming of this disease with the word “plague,” did not mean it was the original bubonic plague that killed tens of millions of people in Europe in the 14th century. I assumed it was the generic term for it. Little did I know that the infectious disease caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria is still hanging around and accounts for over 80 percent of U.S. plague cases. Plague cases have mostly occurred in Africa, according to the WHO. “The three most endemic countries are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Peru,” according to the CDC.
The human plague persists because it can survive under the ground for years. Animals that burrow underground can pick it up. The article was short of information. It made me think people can get infected and be carriers. However, it may need the bite of an infected flee which changes that explanation. Dogs can carry those infected flees.
We had a dog infected with flees so bad, we had flees hopping all over the house. We didn’t even know he was infected until they started crawling up our leg. I think the flees came from the squirrels living in our trees and spreading them in the lawn. Lucky the flees weren’t carriers of infection.