Plague-infected squirrel shuts Los Angeles park

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Parts of a national forest in California have been evacuated and closed down after a squirrel was found to be infected with the plague.

Los Angeles officials say visitors were ordered to leave the Angeles National Forest as a precaution after the rodent was trapped in a routine check.

They said no people in the area were believed to have been infected with the disease, known as the Black Death.

The plague killed as many as 25 million Europeans during the Middle Ages.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23460709

[leftyohiolib]

1. everything old is new again -yersinia pestis rearing it's ugly head

[hobbit709]

2. Last major outbreak of the plague in the U.S. was in L.A. in 1924-25. 37 dead.

[Deep13]

3. The "Black Death" was a specific outburst of plague...

that occurred in the 1340s and 50s. The disease is simply "plague." If it gets in the lymphatic system, it is bubonic plague. If it gets in the lungs, it is pneumonic plague, and if it gets in the blood it is septicemic plague. Without antibiotics, the bubonic variety is usually fatal, while the other varieties always are.

[Tien1985]

4. Sad that the news outlet reporting this

is the BBC?

[BumRushDaShow]

6. The L.A. Times has the story

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-plague-squirrel-20130725,0,3215912.story

[Retrograde]

12. Because it's not exactly news?

plague has been in California - and a lot of the southwest since c. 1900, when there was a major outbreak in San Francisco. After the earthquake of 1906, it escaped across the bay and eventually into the wild rodent population. When I moved here in the 70s I remember seeing signs in local parks warning about potentially infected rodents. I guess people may have forgotten about it since there haven't been any big human cases recently.

It's treatable if caught quickly.

[Ecumenist]

26. EXACTLY, I thought everyone knew that plague is endemic in a lot of California and you are

well advised to stay away from ground squirrels in particular.

[Baclava]

5. It's happened before - more rodents

Plague Decimates Prairie Dogs

An outbreak of bubonic plague is turning prairie dog towns into ghost towns on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

Weeks ago, a 500-acre prairie dog town on the reservation was alive with thousands of barking, scurrying rodents. Now, there is hardly any sound or movement.

Environmental officials suspect the area is on the verge of a plague epidemic similar to the one that annihilated prairie dogs on nearly 21,000 acres in Phillips County in the mid-1990s.

Bubonic plague is transmitted by fleas. The bacteria — Yersinia pestis — thrives in prairie dog fleas. Once infected, prairie dogs contract a form of plague and die within days, usually deep within their burrows. Other animals known to carry the disease are deer mice, rats, badgers, coyotes, bobcats and antelope.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/storynew?id=95887&page=1

[Javaman]

7. While this might uncommon for L.A...

stories like this usually pop up from time to time.

Here's an interesting article giving a little bit more insight in the plague and how common or uncommon it is (depending on how you look at it)

El Dorado warns of plague danger, urges avoidance of rodents

Plague is an infectious disease that affects rodents and humans. Introduced into this country in 1900 when it hitchhiked to the United States on rat-infested ships, plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria.

There were 999 confirmed or probable U.S. plague cases from 1900 to 2010, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the cases have been in the New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado area and in Nevada, Oregon and California.

"Plague is naturally present in many parts of California, including higher elevations of El Dorado County, so we all need to be cautious around animals that can carry it," said Dr. Alicia Paris-Pombo, the county's public health officer.

The California Department of Health Services routinely monitors the rodent population in the state for signs of the plague. Last September and October, three chipmunks tested positive for plague in the South Lake Tahoe area.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/24/5444902/el-dorado-warns-of-plague-danger.html#storylink=cpy

[Squinch]

8. EEK!

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. It's coming, we're overdue for a cull

.
.
.

Trillions of dollars of nuclear weapons around the globe,

But ya can't stop momma nature -

No way, no how . . . .

We pissed her off

big time . . .

CC

[Scootaloo]

28. Bubonic plague is quite treatable, and very preventable

Sort of like leprosy, it was a scary monster in the middle ages that has since been discovered to just be Old Man Higgens in a latex mask. Basic hygiene keeps it at bay, and low-tech antibiotics clear it up easily enough.

Granted it's still lethal if untreated, but it's unlikely ever to reach the pandemic stages of the past... At least until we crash and end up living in manure huts again, I guess. Even then I doubt germ theory will vanish quickly, as it's "common knowledge."

[TeeYiYi]

10. k+r ...nt

TYY

[Thav]

11. Bring out yer dead! *clang*

Here's one!

Nine pence.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. But I'm not dead yet. nt

[RebelOne]

13. If one squirrel was infected, there are bound to be more. n/t

[KamaAina]

14. The Angeles National Forest is actually in the mountains above L.A.

It's not like there's plague in MacArthur Park or anything.

[denbot]

15. Thousands visit or travel through the San Gabriel's each week.

Just like Avian flu hopping populations via an airplane, one person infected and untreated could ignite the pestilent equivalent of a Santa Anna brush fire.

[KamaAina]

19. But not millions

we'd be looking at Outbreak 2.

[Kennah]

16. I think we have another case in NYC

[KamaAina]

20. A fourth form of the disease

Comboveric plague!!

[branford]

29. A pandemic is too horrible to even contemplate.

There is no cure other than a quick and merciful death.

[DeSwiss]

22. ....

[Kennah]

17. Some believe Black Death may really have been Ebola

http://www.livescience.com/15937-black-death-plague-debate.html

[DeSwiss]

21. Is this a ''Biblical Plague?''

- Or just the California kind? And didn't somebody make a B movie like this? If not, they will now.....

K&R

[Union Scribe]

23. Squirrels around here carry the Red Death.

Governor Snyder has already sealed himself and his followers in his castle.

[Hekate]

24. It's endemic among squirrels and other rodents in the Southwest US

Not limited to desert areas, but more common there, afaik. As diseases go, there's traditionally been only a trickle of cases in less-populated areas, and of course modern medicine can jump right on the cases they see. And of course they warn the public, just as they do with rabies when it starts showing up in wildlife like skunks.

It's a case of information, not panic and mass quarantine. Needless to say, ideas of personal cleanliness and public sanitation were drastically different in the Middle Ages than they are now.

[Politicalboi]

25. It's obviously because of

Gay marriage in Ca. Now I have to check my partner Rocky for the plague.

<a href="http://imgur.com/xzkyop4"><img src="" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

[dipsydoodle]

27. How did you get a squirrel as a partner ?

Just askin'

[Kennah]

30. Politicalboi could be nuts