“Bubonic Plague Kills Two In Mongolia Who Hunted And Ate Marmot : Goats and Soda - NPR” plus 2 more

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• Bubonic Plague Kills Two In Mongolia Who Hunted And Ate Marmot : Goats and Soda - NPR
• Bubonic Plague: Terrified Tourists Quarantined After 'Black Death' Outbreak in Mongolia - Newsweek
• Bubonic Plague 'Likely' Already Present In Los Angeles, Dr. Drew Says - The Daily Wire

Bubonic Plague Kills Two In Mongolia Who Hunted And Ate Marmot : Goats and Soda - NPR Posted: 07 May 2019 12:00 AM PDT The bacterium that causes the plague travels around on fleas. This flea illustration is from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, published in London in 1665. Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Getty Images The bacterium that causes the plague travels around on fleas. This flea illustration is from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, published in London in 1665. Getty Images The medieval plague known as the Black Death is making headlines this month. In Mongolia, a couple died of bubonic plague on May 1 after reportedly hunting marmots, large rodents that can harbor the bacterium that causes the disease, and eating the animal's raw meat and kidneys – which some Mongolians believe is good for their health. This is the same illness that killed an estimated 50 million people across three continents in the 1300s. Nowadays, the plague still crops up from time to time, although antibiotics will treat it if taken soon after exposure or the appearance of symptoms. Left untreated, the plague causes fever, vomiting, bleeding and open, infected sores — and can kill a person within a few days. The ethnic Kazakh couple died in Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia's westernmost province bordering Russia and China. It is not clear what treatment they received, if any. The incident prompted local panic. The government ordered a quarantine for six days for the region, preventing scores of tourists from leaving the area. At least one aircraft was examined by health officials in contamination suits. After no new cases appeared by Monday, the quarantine was lifted. Every year, according to the U.S. National Center for Zoonotic Disease, at least one person in Mongolia dies from the plague, usually after coming into contact with marmots. But they probably don't contract the disease from eating the animal's flesh, says David Markman, a researcher at Colorado State University. A person's stomach typically kills a lot of harmful bacteria before the germs are able to cause an infection, Markman says. Yersinia pestis, the bacterium causing the plague, lives in infected animals, particularly rodents, and is usually spread by fleas. "The vast majority of human cases are a result of contracting it from a flea bite," Markman says — just as mosquitoes transmit malaria from person to person. A Plague Primer The plague swept Europe 700 years ago, killing a third of the population. It was called the Black Death, possibly for dark patches caused by bleeding under the skin. It killed millions in China and Hong Kong in the late 1800s before scientists began associating the illness with rats and eliminating rodent populations. The plague comes in three forms. If a person gets bitten by an infected flea, they'd most likely develop bubonic plague, named for the painful lumps, or "buboes," where the bacteria multiply. The bacteria can also get into the bloodstream, causing septicemic (or blood poisoning) plague, and can also spread to the lungs, causing pneumonic plague. The World Health Organization considers this variant to be one of the deadliest infectious diseases because it is highly contagious – spread by coughing — and the fatality rate is 100 percent if untreated. Early symptoms of the plague can mimic the flu — including lethargy and swelling or stiffness in joints and lymph nodes. If someone begins exhibiting these symptoms after coming into contact with rodents or with pets in regions where the plague exists among animal populations, they should seek medical care immediately, Markman says. Transmission Techniques The bacterium that causes the plague will hook onto the lining of a flea's gut and stomach, growing into a film that can clog the insect's digestive passage. The next time the flea goes for a blood meal, it pukes into whatever animal it's feeding on (usually a rodent), spreading the bacteria. Once a rodent is infected, the illness can spread to other wild animals as well as cats, dogs and people within flea-jump range. "What we see in the West is the fleas will crawl up to the entrance of the burrow and wait for a host to come by," says Ken Gage, who studies vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "If they get on another rodent that they can live on, then they've been successful. But they can also jump on humans or on dogs or coyotes or cats." Sometimes, that new host can transport the fleas a few miles away and spread them to other animals. Cats, which are highly susceptible to the disease, can also pass the infection to humans directly by coughing, biting and clawing. The 21st Century Outlook In modern times, the plague periodically pops up across the globe — though at minor levels compared to its heyday. Between 2010 and 2015, there were more than 3,000 cases reported, with 584 deaths. The bacterium thrives in dry, temperate areas like the American Southwest and in North and East Africa, South and Central Asia and parts of South America. The U.S. tends to see between one and 17 human cases a year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease likely hitched a ride to the U.S. in 1900 on flea-infested rats, which had boarded steamships in Asia. Since then, infected fleas have taken up residence on rodents including chipmunks, squirrels and prairie dogs across the southwest. Between 2015 and 2017 in New Mexico, there were 11 cases of the plague in humans, including one death. Paul Ettestad, a public health veterinarian for the New Mexico state health department, says prairie dogs are particularly vulnerable to plague. If a whole colony gets the illness, the bacteria amplify. "It's like putting a match to a grass prairie," he says. "Whoosh." In places with poor access to health care, the illness can be deadly on a larger scale. That's what happened in Madagascar. The country sees between 280 and 600 infections annually. But in August 2017, health authorities began seeing an uptick in cases — particularly in pneumonic plague. After more than 200 deaths, the outbreak was contained by late November 2017. Medical teams confirmed suspected cases, treated patients quickly, advised the use of face masks to prevent infection and monitored international travel. But it's hard to declare a permanent end to an outbreak. The plague can persist in rodent populations, especially wild ones, for decades without affecting humans – and then can re-emerge. Markman's research indicates that the plague bacterium can survive and multiply in microbes in soil and water. Markman hypothesizes that when ground-dwelling rodents, like marmots and prairie dogs, dig in the soil, they may encounter the bacterium, then spread it through fleas. But he cautions that more research needs to be done, saying there are likely many reasons why the plague is still around in 2019. Melody Schreiber (@m_scribe on Twitter) is a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C.

Bubonic Plague: Terrified Tourists Quarantined After 'Black Death' Outbreak in Mongolia - Newsweek Posted: 03 May 2019 12:00 AM PDT Passengers have been taken off a plane and put under medical supervision over fears they had contact with a couple who died from the bubonic plague. Emergency staff in protective clothing boarded the plane, which had arrived in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar from the cities of Bayan, Uglii and Kohvd, The Siberian Times reported. They were deployed amid concerns that passengers had been in contact, either directly or indirectly, with a husband and his pregnant wife, aged 38 and 37 and from Uglii, who had died from the disease on April 27.  Eleven passengers from the west of Mongolia were held at the airport and sent immediately for hospital checks, while more than 150 others were examined at the airport. The couple were said to have contracted the killer disease after eating a marmot, which is a large squirrel. Livestock wander along the frozen landscape March 14, 2010 in Bayantsogt, Tuv province in Mongolia. There has been a reported outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the landlocked central Asian country. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Dr N. Tsogbadrakh, director of Mongolia's National Center for Zoonotic Dermatology and Medicine, said, according to The Siberian Times: "Despite the fact that eating marmots is banned, Citizen T [the male victim] hunted marmot. He ate the meat and gave it to his wife, and they died because the plague affected his stomach. Four children are orphaned.' In addition, a key border near the Russian city of Novosibirsk and the Mongolian city of Uglii was suddenly closed until May 5. The World Health Organization says that the bubonic plague can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated properly and is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is usually found in small mammals and their fleas. Human symptoms of infection include fever, chills, headaches and often a swelling of lymph nodes under the armpit. The bacterium was linked to the Black Death that killed more than a third of Europe's population in the 14th century. The WHO said that between 2010 and 2015 there were 3,248 cases reported worldwide, including 584 deaths. There are plague vaccines but none are available to the general public, Mail Online  reported. Last year a young boy in Idaho was diagnosed with the disease in the first human case in the state since the early 1990s, Mail Online reported. The disease is understood to infect around seven Americans a year and is generally treatable with antibiotic medication. There are still outbreaks of the disease in Africa. In 2017, some 200 people died of the plague in Madagascar.

Bubonic Plague 'Likely' Already Present In Los Angeles, Dr. Drew Says - The Daily Wire Posted: 31 May 2019 09:31 AM PDT Los Angeles is going down the drain. The city, with a population topping four million and a broader metropolitan area with many millions more, is awash in massive problems — overcrowding, lack of housing, and high demand for free services among them. But other far more serious problems are lurking, Dr. Drew Pinksy said on Thursday. "We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now," Pinsky told Fox New host Laura Ingraham. "We have the three prongs of airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, rodent-borne. We are one of the only cities in the country that doesn't have a rodent control program, and sanitation has broken down." Pinsky said bubonic plague — also known as the "Black Death," a pandemic that killed off millions in the 14th century — is "likely" already present in Los Angeles. The plague is spread by infected fleas and exposure to bodily fluids from a dead plague-infected animal, with the bacteria entering through the skin and traveling to lymph nodes. Typhus, which broke out in the city last year, will likely return, Pinsky said. Already, a Los Angeles police officer has contracted typhoid fever, which infects fewer than 350 Americans each year. The various types of typhus are caused by a bacterial infection and spread by body lice, chiggers or fleas. In the 1600s, the disease decimated Germany. "This is unbelievable. I can't believe I live in a city where this is not Third World. This is medieval," Pinsky said, according to Fox News. "Third World countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this. No city on Earth tolerates this. The entire population is at risk." Pinsky said the city simply can't handle the demand for services, noting that many homeless are mentally ill and don't want to accept housing. "[T]he government is somehow insisting that housing is the problem when in fact we have chronic mental illness, we have addiction, we have people who don't want to leave the streets," Pinsky said. "They literally won't take the housing if we give it to them. And that's the population that's vulnerable, and is going to get so ill this summer. It scares me for their well-being." The famed doctor also said California cities are suffering after allowing thousands of illegal aliens to flow in. He said the liberal politicians running most cities are "disgustingly negligent." Homelessness is also exploding in San Francisco — the home district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. "A federal count shows the number of homeless people increased by double-digit percentages in three San Francisco Bay Area counties over two years as the region struggled to tackle the growing problem, including 17% in San Francisco and 43% in the county that includes Oakland," the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, a new map compiled by the group Open the Books titled "2011-2019 San Francisco Human Waste Reportings" features a little pin (appropriately brown) showing where city residents have reported human feces. From the looks of the map, the entire city has been covered in poop. "Since 2008, over 23,800 cases of human waste were reported in the heart of San Francisco. There were 13 reports of human feces in front of City Hall; 17 events at the U.S. Marshals office; and 67 reports at the Tenderloin police station on Eddy Street," Forbes reported. Even the biggest companies that call San Francisco home have not been spared. "The largest concentration of complaints was in the area of Market St., where the headquarters of companies such as Twitter and Uber are located. Nearly a hundred markers also were clustered along the block that surrounds city hall," Fox said.

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