Bubonic plague reported in Scotts Bluff County

BY MICHAEL O'CONNOR

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD - Nebraska

August 5, 2008

Plague, an ancient disease that killed millions in the Middle Ages, has been nearly wiped out around the world.

But it still lingers, with some of the latest evidence cropping up in western Nebraska.

A pet cat in Scotts Bluff County has tested positive for bubonic plague, the most common form of the disease. A family that lives near Gering owns the cat.

Don't worry, though.

Human cases in the United States are rare — people stand a much greater chance of getting the flu than getting the plague, once known as Black Death. And animal cases are most common among wild rodents such as ground squirrels and prairie dogs.

Last week, the family took its 1-year-old cat to Dr. Jerry Upp, a Gering veterinarian.

The white-and-orange striped cat was weak, was not eating and had an open sore on its neck. Such sores aren't uncommon, but the sore's location caught Upp's attention.

Upp knows that the neck's lymph nodes are a common place for bubonic plague symptoms. Animal cases of bubonic plague have popped up in eastern Wyoming in recent years, so he knew western Nebraska could get some as well.

"We have been watching for it," he said.

Upp said the cat was immediately put in isolation at his clinic, was treated with antibiotics and is doing much better. The family also is taking antibiotics as a precaution.

Upp said he's not certain how the cat was infected. It's possible the cat ate an infected rodent, possibly a prairie dog.

He said the family is trying to decide whether to take the cat home once it is healed or have it put to sleep as a precaution.

Dr. Ingrid Weber of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said cats and other animals can directly spread the plague to humans, but that is rare. People usually get the plague from a bite from an infected flea.

Plague has caused health disasters throughout history. But antibiotics and improved sanitation that reduced human contact with rats have significantly reduced the problem.

Worldwide, there are 1,000 to 3,000 human cases annually, in such places as Africa, Asia and South America.

Weber said the bacteria that causes the plague today is the same type that killed people in the Middle Ages, although it is a different strain.

In humans, the bubonic plague causes swollen and tender lymph nodes, fever, chills and extreme exhaustion. Another form of the plague can settle in the lungs.

Dr. Gary Gorby, chief of infectious diseases at Creighton University Medical School, said that even though the plague is far less of a threat than it was centuries ago, some people still are frightened by it.

"It conjures up images of rapid fatalities," he said.

In the United States, there were 46 human cases from 2000 through 2007, including four deaths, according to the CDC.

Nebraska has had no confirmed human cases of plague at least as far back as 1920, according to the State Department of Health and Human Services.

Christin Kamm, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, said the cat in Scotts Bluff County is the only confirmed animal case with her department.

Iowa health officials said they are not aware of any confirmed human or animal cases.

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