Posted on 04/18/2006 8:54:50 PM PDT by berilhertz
A woman was hospitalized earlier this month with bubonic plague, the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County in more than two decades, health officials said Tuesday.
The woman, who was not identified, was admitted April 13 with a fever, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. A blood test confirmed she had contracted the bacterial disease. The woman was placed on antibiotics and is in stable condition, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
So...simple antibiotics is all that is needed for treatment/cure?
They still haven't found out her name? No ID on her?
And she would be from where?......or had been traveling to where?.......
"the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County"
At first I thought it might be Maxine Waters, but then the article said she was in stable condition.
related story
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1617345/posts
Apparently. Interesting, eh.
We always heard that salmanella was deadly. Well my 18 mo. old son got it a few years back and all they did was prescribe antibiotics. No biggie. It was nothing more than a prolonged stomach bug. I don't get the hype sometimes.
Tetracycline, streptomycin, or gentamicin.
Is it just another example of an illegal spreading the diseases that Americans don't want to spread?
Here's an interesting link from the CDC that you might like. It's a synopsis of what the plague is all about.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/info.htm
"...simple antibiotics is all that is needed for "
treatment/cure?"
Not sure if the simplest ones will do it, but by the Grace of God it is readily treatable/curable today. Not like centuries ago.
SPOILER ALERT
This was also the plot on House tonight. (I hope that worked)
LA Woman Hospitalized With Bubonic Plague
Apr 18 9:15 PM US/EasternBy ALICIA CHANG
AP Science WriterLOS ANGELES
A woman was hospitalized earlier this month with bubonic plague, the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County in more than two decades, health officials said Tuesday.
The woman, who was not identified, was admitted April 13 with a fever, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. A blood test confirmed she had contracted the bacterial disease. The woman was placed on antibiotics and is in stable condition, officials said.
Bubonic plague is not contagious, but if left untreated it can morph into pneumonic plague, which can be spread from person to person. Bubonic plague is usually transmitted to humans from the bites of fleas infected by dead rodents.
Health officials suspect the woman was exposed to fleas in her central Los Angeles home, said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county's director of public health. The woman's family was also placed on antibiotics as a precaution, but there's no evidence they were infected.
The case is unusual because it occurred in an urban area, Fielding said. Most bubonic plague outbreaks happen in rural communities.
Health officials said there was no cause for panic because the disease is not easily transmissible.
"There's no cause for alarm in the community," Fielding said.
Health officials went to the woman's home Monday to trap squirrels and other wild animals. Blood samples from the animals will be sent to a lab to determine if any are infected.
An estimated 10 to 20 Americans contract plague each year, mostly in rural communities. About one in seven cases is fatal, according to federal statistics.
The last human cases of plague in Los Angeles County occurred in 1984 when three people contracted the disease. Two of those cases were travel-related and the third involved a person exposed to a sick animal. All three survived.
Bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe between 1346 and 1351. The last major urban outbreak in the U.S. occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-25, when at least 30 people died.
In California, bubonic plague is prevalent among squirrels in the Angeles National Forest and other parks. Health officials regularly warn campers and hikers to take precaution against the disease by avoiding infected animals.
The plague is considered a bioterrorism agent and state law requires that doctors report suspected cases to local health departments.
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Los Angeles Department of Health Services: http://www.dhs.co.la.ca.us
I grew up in socal and never saw a squirrel or any rodent except as a pet. There was mention of rodents and fleas and there are plenty of fleas in so-cal but the rodents must have migrated.
Of course that fact doesn't fit your agenda so I'm sure you conveniently forgot.
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