State health officials say a woman in Lake County has been diagnosed with bubonic plague.
It’s the first diagnosis in Oregon in 15 years. The disease terrorized Europe’s population more than 600 years ago, but the plague is treatable when caught early.
The plague is extremely rare these days. It’s a bacterial infection carried by rodents, and is transmitted to humans though fleas.
Dr. Emilio DeBess is the public health veterinarian and an epidemiologist with Oregon Department of Human Services.
He says the disease, once known as the Black Death got somewhat of a bad rap after killing off a third of Europe’s population in the 1300s....
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Plague in California is mainly related to ground squirrels. Dusting burrows with DDT eliminates the problem; anything else they've ever tried has turned out to be wishful thinking.
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