Posted on 10/21/2008 1:43:56 PM PDT by george76
‘‘Pneumonic plague is a highly fatal disease,’’ .
‘‘The death rate can be as high as 50 percent even with treatment.’’
Undocumented Mountain Lion Spreading Disease Bump?
If it’s in a black plastic bag, don’t open it.
It isn’t dinner.
That could have been the start of a horrible epidemic
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Cool article. I hope people will read it all.
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.
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.
Interesting but nothing to get excited about.
It must have been a horrible death for this man. Prayers go out to his family.
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.
So, what exactly do the universities teach biologists?
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.
Thanks for the ping, George76.
Pinging ye.
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.
To vote for Socialists!
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.
“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.
I often try to warn people to be careful.
Many of them do not believe it is possible.
Rabies too.
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