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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.

Yersinia pestis accounts for all US plague cases- Y. pestis infection = plague. It's just that the disease has three courses- bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. 80% are bubonic plague. The other two make up the remainder.

Should you ever catch it, pray you get the bubonic variety- the other two are far worse, and pneumonic plague accounts for stories from the Black Death of things like people going to sleep healthy and never awakening in the morning. Septicemic plague is one of the handful of human infectious diseases that is 100% fatal when untreated.

I grew up in the intermountain west being cautioned to be careful around rodents because of plague and tularemia (which is also in the news due to a current case)...

The good news is that we in the US don't suffer from epidemics of plague, due to our first world hygiene (not many houses swarming with fleas) and good antibiotics. Other places where plague is endemic, namely several countries in South America and Africa aren't so lucky.

I actually know a guy who caught plague as a kid. He forever gets the bragging rights of having survived the actual Black Plague!

Lyme disease is another one to be of concern. My sister was bitten by a tick when on a hike. She thought nothing of it until the ring appeared around the bite. Six months later, she suffers a stroke. She did not know that if left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Her heart developed an atrial fibrillation caused by cardiac inflammation. That was the cause of the blood clot in her brain. People are unaware of the dangers flees and ticks pose.