Full story: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/656128/Plague-outbreak-global-black-death-Madagascar-Africa-WHO-South-Kenya-Ethiopia-Seychelles
I thank my Maker that we live in a medically enlightened age, where doctors understand the causes and means of spread of the three main types of plague - and have antibiotics and other medicines to treat victims, and means of cutting off the spread. Plague of a couple of varieties is far from unknown in the US. I think the last known outbreak of this particular type was in San Francisco about 100 years ago. IIRC from reading, about 30 people died in that outbreak. That was 100 years ago - before antibiotics. Less likely today. There are plague issues every year in the Southwestern United States and I remember Mongolia (one of my favourite countries) has its yearly high plague season in July and August. I feel sympathy for people affected overseas, but I hardly think this is going to result in any significant problem in North America. I'm sure the right people are on it already. J.
There is a interesting article, "The Next Pandemic", in the November 2017 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine. (next year is the 100th anniversary of the last big influenza outbreak).
I'm not convinced this statement is true. There is a interesting article in the November 2017 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine.
The last reported plague case in Canada was in 1936, I believe. As Johann says, plague cases continue to occur in the United States yearly. The hotbed appears to be northern New Mexico, presumably because appropriate animal vectors (rodents) live there. It seems to come in waves. In 2015, an unusually bad year, there were 16 cases and four fatalities. https://www.cdc.gov/plague/maps/index.html This African outbreak from Madagascar is particularly macabre, if the newspapers are to be believed (always questionable). The story is that locals on that huge island are digging up the bodies of deceased loved ones in order to dance with the corpses (a local tradition) infecting themselves. Reportedly the disease is threatening to spread to the east African ports. Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa, along with the island countries of Comoros, Seychelles and Mauritius and the French overseas department of Reunion are all on the lookout for plague cases.
For us here in New Mexico, plague is common enough that the doctors recognize it and treat it quickly enough to save the patient's life. MUCH scarier is Hanta virus. This little number consolidates your lungs in a matter of hours and there is NO VACCINE and NO KOWN TREATMENT. You get it from mouse urine or something. Cases are few but alarmingly regular in appearing, mostly in the Four Corners area. Brrr. Meanwhile, malaria is working its way up from Northern Mexico along with its vector Mosquitos. Its just a bit south of the border region in Chihuahua and Sonora. I was in fact barred for donating blood for a year because I spent a night in Sinaloa. One of these days we all might be barred from donating blood altogether. Dengue and a couple of other versions of medical misery will probably come with.
Supposedly the plague variant in Madagascar can kill within 24 hours, which gives very little time to identify and then treat it. The window of opportunity for treatment is narrow.
