https://www.azcommerce.com/a/profiles/ViewProfile/4/Coconino+County/
in some ways this part of Arizona IS “another country.”
Wondering if the patient was from one of the nations or just got flea bit a while ago and didn’t think twice about the golfball -sized lymph nodes in his/her groin until it was too late.
I saw a grunt (11B) once while doing an internal medicine rotation at Ft. Ord back in the late 80’s who contracted YP/Bubonic Plague while walking around barefoot at Camp Roberts down by Paso Robles/Ft. Hunter Maggot (I say that with all due affection - I was stationed there once for a year, best time ever).
Thinking was he got a flea bite from one of the bizillions that inhabit the area catching a ride and feeding off the ground squirrels there. IIRC a little doxycycline took care of him and he was out of the hospital in a few days.
To think of how much time I spent hiking Los Padres Nat’l Forest, camping, hanging out at Lake San Antonio… the plague, while endemic, isn’t very prevalent nor often contracted. A quick websearch says there’s an average of SEVEN cases a year in the US, about the same number nearly 40 years ago.
For the record, I was 11 Bravo - just jumped before we “humped”!
Ord in 89-90 until I ETS’d. Been to hungry lizard.