Colorado reports first human plague case since 2015, but officials say there's no increased risk to

[TexasTowelie]

Colorado reports first human plague case since 2015, but officials say there’s no increased risk to public


A southwest Colorado resident was infected with plague after exposure to sick squirrels earlier this summer, the first confirmed case of the disease in humans in the state since 2015. But health officials emphasized that the public only needs to take normal precautions.

Plague, a bacterial disease that’s typically carried by fleas but also can spread through respiratory droplets, has been in Colorado since the 1940s, said Dr. Jennifer House, state public health veterinarian for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Infected wild animals have been found in Jefferson, Adams and Broomfield counties this year, though the disease can circulate in rodent communities around the state.

“While we see most plague activity during the summer, the disease can be found in rodents year-round and sometimes spills over into other wildlife species as well as domestic cats and dogs,” she said.

Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/16/colorado-plague-human-case/

[hlthe2b]

1. Plague is endemic in the Southwest. We see die-offs in prairie dogs every year and the occasional

infected feral or outdoor cat or spread among the occasonal ground squirrel. Human cases occur sporadically, especially among veterinarians and their staff.

I remember when the DNC was held in Denver and we had a squirrel test positive in Denver's City Park. The USSS and Homeland Security went nuts, thinking it was some bioterrorism event. While Public Health and Wildlife officials tried to explain all this to them, they erected $$$$ sensors all over the place to try to detect airborne plague. Of course trying to convince them that bubonic forms of plague are not spread person-to-person, unlike the extremely rare pneumonic form of plague, was hopeless. The sensors of course, came up negative, except in the vicinity of a distant prairie dog colony, later shown to be a false positive.