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Colorado public health officials confirm new case of human plague

Public health officials in Colorado have confirmed that a human has tested positive for the plague, a rare but potentially deadly infectious disease that’s typically spread through flea bites.

The infected individual is from Pueblo County, according to the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment. 

While the plague conjures nightmares of flea-infested rats and dreary medieval villages filled with the dead and dying, in the modern day things aren't so grim.

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29 comments

  • Stop hugging the squirrels and forest critters to avoid the plague.

    • In that area, the prairie dog colonies are rife with the plague.

      • kagis

        Huh.

        Apparently we -- at least in some places -- actually try to treat wild prairie dog colonies for it, to help reduce spread. In 2019:

        https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/plague-infected-prairie-dogs-close-parks-near-denver-180972937/

        Bubonic plague may seem like a disease that’s been relegated to the history books, but that’s not the case. The disease that struck terror in people in the Middle Ages is alive and well in the modern world, and it's most recently appeared in prairie dog towns in the suburbs of Denver.

        Morgan Krakow at The Washington Post reports that in late July, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service shut down the 15,000-acre Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge north of the city when fleas infected with the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis were found in the refuge's black-tailed prairie dog colonies. Last weekend, parts of the refuge reopened, but certain areas will remain closed through Labor Day. According to a press release from Colorado’s Tri-County Health Department, the Prairie Gateway Open Space in Commerce City is also closed to the public as well as First Creek at DEN Open Space, a nature preserve near Denver International Airport. So far, there are no reports of any humans contracting plague in the area.

        “The prairie dog colonies are being monitored and burrows are being treated with insecticide, but there is still evidence of fleas in the hiking and camping areas, which could put people and pets at risk, so those areas will remain closed,” John M. Douglas, Jr., Executive Director of the Health Department, tells CNN’s Eric Levenson.

        The Post’s Krakow reports that health department workers have been coating the prairie dog burrows with powdered insecticide. As the little mammals run into their burrows, they brush up against the powder, hopefully killing off the fleas and preventing the spread to other animals.

29 comments