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Authorities revealed Friday that actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease and showed severe signs of Alzheimer’s disease a full week after his wife died of hantavirus in their home. The rare but deadly virus is most commonly spread through breathing in contaminated air. Since the end of 2022, 864 cases of hantavirus disease have were reported in the United States since surveillance began in 1993. Advertisement Hantaviruses can infect and cause serious diseases in people worldwide, according to the CDC. People get hantavirus from contact with rodents like rats and mice, especially when exposed to their urine, droppings, and...

An Oregon resident has been infected with the state’s first case of bubonic plague since 2015, health officials said last week. The resident was likely infected with plague by their symptomatic pet cat, Deschutes County Health Services said in a news release on Wednesday. "All close contacts of the resident and their pet have been contacted and provided medication to prevent illness," Dr. Richard Fawcett, the Deschutes County health officer, said in the release without identifying the infected resident. Officials said there was little risk to the community since the case was identified and treated in the earlier stages of...

Surrounded by fires, parched by drought, and shut down by the pandemic – residents of California’s scenic South Lake Tahoe thought they’d endured everything. That was until this week, when the US Forest Service announced it was closing several popular sites after discovering bubonic plague in the chipmunk population. The federal agency announced this week that “based on positive plague tests” in the rodent population around hiking areas, it would close the well-trafficked Taylor Creek Visitor Center and nearby Kiva Beach through Friday. The closure includes some of the region’s most spectacular hiking spots, which meander through forested glades speckled...

Updated 5 February, 2021 - 17:11 ashley cowieMystery of Genghis Khan’s Death Considered SolvedRead Later PrintA team of scientists have cleared up the myths surrounding the death of the great Genghis Khan . They claim that his passing might hold a message for today’s leaders amidst the threats of the current Covid-19 pandemic. Born Temujin of the Borjigin clan in 1162 AD, Genghis Khan was the legendary Mongol leader who developed a vast empire stretching from the east coast of China west to the Aral Sea. The great Khan was 65 years old when he died in 1227 AD...

In the Middle Ages, the plague caused tens of millions of deaths in Europe in a series of outbreaks known as the Black Death. And while it's extremely rare in modern times, the deadly bacterial infection is still around today — but how likely are you to catch it? This week, California reported its first case of plague in five years. The patient, a resident of the South Lake Tahoe area, is said to be recovering at home. And in July, a 15-year-old boy in western Mongolia died of bubonic plague that he contracted from an infected marmot. According to...

A 15-year-old boy has died from bubonic plague in western Mongolia, according to government health officials. The teenager caught the plague after hunting and eating marmot, according to Dorj Narangerel, spokesperson for Mongolia's Ministry of Health. He died on Sunday. Marmots are large ground squirrels, a type of rodent, that have historically been linked to plague outbreaks in the region. Tests confirmed the teenager had contracted bubonic plague and authorities imposed quarantine measures in the Tugrug district of Gobi-Altai province. Mongolia has recorded 692 cases of marmot plague from 1928 to 2018. Of those, 513 died of the disease, equivalent...

Colorado health officials announced a squirrel in the state tested positive for the bubonic plague. Health officials reported the squirrel was the first documented case of the disease in the Town of Morrison in Jefferson County. Bubonic plague is an infectious illness caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Scientists said the disease spreads through bites of infected fleas and can affect not only humans but also household animals. The World Health Organization explained those suffering from the disease experience their lymph nodes getting inflamed. The painful swollen glands are, in some countries, called "bubo." While the disease is highly infectious,...

A lot of English people believed 1666 would be the year of the apocalypse. You can’t really blame them. In late spring 1665, bubonic plague began to eat away at London’s population. By fall, roughly 7,000 people were dying every week in the city. The plague lasted through most of 1666, ultimately killing about 100,000 people in London alone — and possibly as many as three-quarters of a million in England as a whole. Perhaps the greatest chronicler of the Great Plague was Samuel Pepys, a well-connected English administrator and politician who kept a detailed personal diary during London’s darkest...

The deadly plague sweeping Madagascar may have a particularly gruesome cause — a local tradition of dancing with dead bodies. SEE ALSO Madagascar's plague outbreak is spreading at an alarming rate Madagascar's plague outbreak is spreading at an alarming rate Health officials suspect it’s no coincidence that the outbreak — which has infected more than 1,100 people and killed 124 since August — coincides with the time of year when families customarily exhume the remains of dead relatives, wrap them in a sheet, and dance with them through the streets in a sacred ritual, AFP reports. “If a person dies...

SONOITA – In the shadow of the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains, Kurt Licence, a birds and mammals biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, reached his hands into a metal cage and firmly grabbed ahold of a black-tailed prairie dog in front of a small yet electrified crowd. “Welcome home,” he said, as he carried the animal to another enclosure and prepared to push it down a plastic tube leading to its new home. “You ready?” The animal was the first of 94 black-tailed prairie dogs released in the Sands Ranch area east of Sonoita on Oct. 13...

TAYLOR, Ariz. (3TV/CBS5) — Health officials are urging people to take precautions after a second Arizona county in two weeks confirmed that fleas in the area have tested positive for plague. The announcement by Navajo County Public Health officials on Friday comes one week after Coconino County officials found prairie dogs in the area to be carrying fleas with the plague -- the infectious disease infamous for killing millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages. The fleas in Navajo County were found near the town of Taylor. Health officials have notified the residents whose property will be treated. The area...

Black Death, a mid-fourteenth century plague, killed 30 to 50 per cent of the European population in just five years. The pandemic was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria with millions dying from the disease in two major outbreaks. Thousands of years before it wreaked havoc in the second wave of deaths, the bacteria may have been passed around as a harmless microbe. ... Being distinct from all modern forms of plague, the scientists believe they have identified an extinct form of the disease, according to their study reported yesterday in the online journal eLife. ... Marseille was a big...

The authorities in Oregon have confirmed a case of the bubonic plague in a teenage girl who was believed to have contracted the disease from a flea bite. Plague is rare and treatable with antibiotics if caught early, but federal authorities have been puzzled by an increase in cases this year. In a statement, state and local health officials in Oregon said they thought the girl was infected during a hunting trip on Oct. 16 near Heppner, a city located at the foothills of the Blue Mountains in the northeastern region of the state.

The Mutant Genes Behind the Black Death Only a few genetic changes were enough to turn an ordinary stomach bug into the bacteria responsible for the plague. Pieter Bruegel the ElderThe Triumph of Death (1562), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. By: Carrie ArnoldOctober 6, 2015 Comments (1) Download PDF Print Each year, 4 million people visit Yosemite National Park in California. Most bring back photos, postcards and an occasional sunburn. But two unlucky visitors this summer got a very different souvenir. They got the plague.This quintessential medieval disease, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and transmitted most often by fleabites,...

Bubonic plague is the most common form of the disease in humans (about 80% of cases) Symptoms begin two to six days after the bite of an infected flea, or contact with an infected rodent or cat. Typical symptoms include swollen lymph nodes, sudden onset of fever or chills, severe headache, extreme exhaustion, and a general feeling of illness. Bubonic plague can be successfully treated when diagnosed promptly. If you have had a possible exposure to infected rodents or fleas and are experiencing these symptoms, consult a physician as soon as possible. Septicemic plague occurs when the bacteria enter the...

How The Bubonic Plague Actually Saved Europe In The 14th Century Sam Ro May 15, 2013, 1:31 PM Studying the history of financial crises can be quite enlightening. Deutsche Bank's Peter Hooper just published an interesting report considering crises going back to the Middle Ages. Referring to the work of Juesus Huerta de Soto, Geld, Bankkredit und Konjunkturzyklen, and Stuttgart, Hooper summarizes what happened during the European credit crisis of the 14th century. What's interesting is how the country got out of the crisis. From Hooper's note (emphasis added): In the early 14th century banks in Florence engaged in a...

A 7-Year-Old Girl Caught Bubonic Plague On A Camping TripAllison Jackson, GlobalPostSep. 8, 2012, 3:03 PMA seven-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after contracting the bubonic plague during a family camping trip in southwest Colorado. Sierra Jane Downing became sick a few days after the outing in Pagosa Springs. Her parents Darcy and Sean thought she had the flu until she started having seizures, the Associated Press reported. They rushed her to hospital where doctors eventually diagnosed the bubonic plague—the first confirmed case of the deadly disease in Colorado since 2006. "I didn't know what was going on. I...

An 8-year-old New Mexico boy has died and his 10-year-old sister was hospitalized after both contracted bubonic plague, the first recorded human plague cases in the nation so far this year. Plague is generally transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas, but also can be transmitted by direct contact with infected animals, including rodents, rabbits and pets. Symptoms of the bubonic form of the plague in humans include fever, chills, headaches, vomiting, diarrhea and swollen lymph nodes in the groin, armpit or neck areas. Pneumonic plague, which is an infection of the lungs, can include severe cough, difficulty...

TRENTON, N.J. — The frozen remains of two mice injected with the organism that causes plague have not been accounted for seven weeks after being discovered missing at a University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey facility in Newark, the university said Friday. The FBI investigated and determined there was no risk to public health or any indication of the terrorist link. It wasn't the first time plague-infected mice have disappeared from the New Jersey facility. Four years ago, in September 2005, three live mice infected with bubonic plague bacteria disappeared from various cages. Officials later said they believed...

An al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday. The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria. He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication...