Two people just got the plague in China — yes, the Black Death plague

[Elderberry]

CNN Health by  Jessie Yeung 11/14/2019

Two people in China are being treated for plague, authorities said Tuesday. It's the second time the disease, the same one that caused the Black Death, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, has been detected in the region -- in May, a Mongolian couple died from bubonic plague after eating the raw kidney of a marmot, a local folk health remedy.

The two recent patients, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, were diagnosed with pneumonic plague by doctors in the Chinese capital Beijing, according to state media Xinhua. They are now receiving treatment in Beijing's Chaoyang District, and authorities have implemented preventative control measures.

Plague, caused by bacteria and transmitted through flea bites and infected animals, can develop in three different forms. Bubonic plague causes swollen lymph nodes, while septicemic plague infects the blood and pneumonic plague infects the lungs.

Pneumonic -- the kind the Chinese patients have -- is more virulent and damaging. Left untreated, it is always fatal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

More: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/13/health/china-plague-intl-hnk-scn-scli/index.html?no-st=1573740435

[PeteS in CA]

From what I've read, one current theory of the origin of plague is that it crossed from critters such as marmots to humans in Central Asia 2 or 3 thousand years ago, and was carried into Europe by merchants.

[Elderberry]

Origins Of The Black Death Traced Back To China, Gene Sequencing Has Revealed

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/206309.php#1

Gene sequencing, from which scientists can gather hereditary data of organisms, has revealed that the Black Death, often referred to as The Plague, which reduced the world's total population by about 100 million, originated from China over 2000 years ago, scientists from several countries wrote in the medical journal Nature Genetics. Genome sequencing has allowed the researchers to reconstruct plague pandemics from the Black Death to the late

The authors in this new study say the plague evolved around the area of China over 2000 years ago and spread globally several times as deadly pandemics. They compared 17 complete plague genome sequences as well as 933 variable DNA sites on a unique worldwide collection of bacterial strains (plague isolates), allowing them to follow pandemics that took place in history around the world, and to work out the age of different waves of them.

[berdie]

From what I have read there have been cases of the Black Plague in the US...New Mexico I think. Maybe not the same strain?

[Elderberry]

Maps and Statistics

Plague in the United States

https://www.cdc.gov/plague/maps/index.html

Plague was first introduced into the United States in 1900, by rat–infested steamships that had sailed from affected areas, mostly from Asia. Epidemics occurred in port cities. The last urban plague epidemic in the United States occurred in Los Angeles from 1924 through 1925. Plague then spread from urban rats to rural rodent species, and became entrenched in many areas of the western United States. Since that time, plague has occurred as scattered cases in rural areas. Most human cases in the United States occur in two regions:

    Northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado

    California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada

Over 80% of United States plague cases have been the bubonic form. In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases have been reported each year (range: 1–17 cases per year). Plague has occurred in people of all ages (infants up to age 96), though 50% of cases occur in people ages 12–45. It occurs in both men and women, though historically is slightly more common among men, probably because of increased outdoor activities that put them at higher risk.


Reported Cases of Human Plague - United States, 1970-2017

[TomSea]

The article says 2cdied from it in a recent year in Colorado, 

Anyway, 28 people in China are quarantined over it.

https://miamidiario.com/28-personas-en-cuarentena-en-china-tras-conocerse-de-una-persona-mostraba-sintomas-de-peste-bubonica/

I thought though, for this year, there had been a recent death in NM from it.

[Elderberry]

@TomSea

Plague: New Mexico reports 1st human case of 2019 October 4, 2019

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/plague-new-mexico-reports-1st-human-case-of-2019/

For the first time since 2017, New Mexico health officials have reported a human plague case. The confirmed case is reported in a 72-year-old man from Torrance County.

The New Mexico Department of Health staff have gone door-to-door in the affected area to inform neighbors about plague and provided them with education to reduce their risks.

There has been one animal plague case in a dog in Quay County in 2019. Four human plague cases were reported in New Mexico in 2017.

[truth_seeker]

From what I have read there have been cases of the Black Plague in the US...New Mexico I think. Maybe not the same strain?

Lost Angeles, Dr. Dr. Pinsky warns