Are Incidents of the Plague in the United States on the Rise?

Earlier today I heard of another incident of plague, this time the death of many prairie dogs in Arizona:

Residents in the Concho Valley area off of Highway 61 noticed hundreds of prairies dogs had died in a short span of time. Prairie dogs are considered sentinel animals to the fact that plague is in the area. Officials with Arizona Game and Fish were notified by an alert resident and further contact was made with health officials from Apache and Coconino counties, the state health department, as well as experts at Northern Arizona University. NAU is home to the Microbial Genetics and Genomics Center and has been a key player in testing for plague for the past 10 years. The lab sent a team to the area to trap fleas in the prairie dog holes that had recent die-offs. The team’s first visit was on August 27 and results from the lab testing showed positive for plague.

hisz.rsoe.hu...$18-36614-USA

Here is an additional source:

www.wmicentral.com...

This particular incident raised an alarm because it made me realize that I have heard of a lot of separate incidents of the plague this year.

Some other examples are...

A recent case in Colorado from a few days ago:

On September 14, the El Paso County Public Health’s lab tested a wild rabbit found on the northeast side of Colorado Springs and confirmed the animal had plague. Investigators say the area where the rabbit was found is East of Powers Boulevard near the St. Francis Medical Center/Hospital. According to a statement released Friday, Public Health infectious disease experts conducted an investigation to determine potential human exposures and to assess the general area for additional plague concerns. The people exposed have been identified and have been given antibiotics to prevent plague from developing. “Plague health alert” flyers will be provided to residents and signs will be posted in the general area to raise the level of awareness and ask people to take precautions to prevent plague. Public Health will continue to monitor plague activity in the area and maintain the signage as appropriate. Plague is a bacterial disease transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected flea. In humans, the symptoms are high fever, chills, headache, extreme fatigue and tender or swollen lymph glands. Public Health advises residents who experience these symptoms to contact their physician. El Paso County’s last reported human case occurred in 1991. The public shouldn’t attempt to catch, feed, handle or exterminate prairie dogs or any type of squirrel, chipmunk, rabbit or other wild animal. Also, keep your dogs on leashes and cats inside and do not allow them to chase wild animals. If you live in the affected area, it is especially important to keep cats indoors, because they are more vulnerable to plague than dogs. Residents within the affected area should also clear property of trash, lumber piles, and other areas where animals my live or hide. Talk with your veterinarian about treating your pets for fleas. Plague is endemic in El Paso County and precautions to prevent plague should always be taken. Additional information on plague can be found at the link below.

hisz.rsoe.hu...

There appears to be at least one more separate incident in Colorado...

7-year-old Colorado girl contracts "black death" bubonic plague

Many may remember the recent case from Oregon that was discussed on ATS:

Plague Confirmed in Oregon Man

There was another case of the plague related to the Oregon incident that I just found out about today...

Friend of Oregon man diagnosed with plague also becomes infected

And there is the case in San Diego from May:

Campground Squirrel Tests Positive for Plague

As my title says, are incidents of the plague on the rise?

I honestly have no idea which is why I authored this thread. To be honest, I don't recall ever hearing about it that often and always considered it to be very rare. So I decided to look into some statistics. Other than the case in Oregon, it seems to be prevalent in the South West United States. We have not had a confirmed case of the plague in Canada since 1939

According to the CDC:

Plague was first introduced into the United States in 1900, by rat–infested steamships that had sailed from affected areas, mostly from Asia. Epidemics occurred in these port cities. The last urban plague epidemic in the United States occurred in Los Angeles from 1924 through 1925. Plague then spread from urban rats to rural rodent species, and became entrenched in many areas of the western United States. Since that time, plague has occurred as scattered cases in rural areas. Most human cases in the United States occur in two regions:

Northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado
California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada

www.cdc.gov...

Continued below...

Between 1900 and 2010, 999 confirmed or probable human plague cases occurred in the United States. Over 80% of United States plague cases have been the bubonic form. In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases have been reported each year (range: 1–17 cases per year) . Plague has occurred in people of all ages (infants up to age 96), though 50% of cases occur in people ages 12–45. It occurs in both men and women, though historically is slightly more common among men, probably because of increased outdoor activities that put them at higher risk.

In the pre–antibiotic era (1900–1941), mortality among those infected with plague in the United States was 66%. Since antibiotics for plague have been available, overall mortality for the years 1942–2010 decreased to 16%. In recent decades (1990–2010), mortality decreased further, to 11%. Mortality is still significant despite availability of effective antibiotics, though it is lower for bubonic plague cases (13%) than for septicemic (28%) or pneumonic (36%) plague cases. Plague occurs in all months of the year, though most cases occur in warmer months, when fleas and rodents are more active.

Plague cases in the United States, 1900–2010. In 1907, an outbreak of plague followed in the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake. Since the mid–20th century, plague in the United States has typically occurred in the rural West.

This bar graph shows the number of plague cases by year, but can be interpreted in two separate time frames. From 1900 to 1942, plague occurred in mostly urban areas, particularly in port cities. The disease was sporadic in nature--characterized by epidemics, followed by years without cases. Since 1942, the number of plague cases has become more uniform in nature, with cases occurring nearly every year and with fewer large outbreaks. Since 1942, plague has primarily occurred in rural and suburban areas, and over time, has begun to resemble that of a low level endemic disease.

www.cdc.gov...

So after a little research it turns out the plague isn't as rare as I think as it is pretty common in certain areas. I do find the trend of incidents moving North Westward to be worrisome even though they are few and far between. According to the CDC bar graph there seems to be a spike every 5-10 years and it appears that we are due, at least to my interpretation of the graph.

The human to animal, and human to human transfers of the plague are also quite worrisome.

This recent round of incidents reminded me of the scientists digging up bodies from Black Death plague.

Black Death genome revealed

I thought it was incredibly stupid of them to do so, even though there are some foreseen benefits from doing this as well. I doubt any of this is connected but I just wanted to throw it out there to get all of us "conspiracy theorists" revved up

One thing for sure is that the plague is very real and it's around so it's one more thing to look out for, especially since incidents seem to be on the rise, at least according to news reports and recent statistics.

The conspiracy nut in me predicts a new plague vaccine to be pushed on the public

To answer the question in my thread title, I don't know for sure and have not come to any solid conclusions so maybe you all can help me?

Cheers.

Yes! And These Could Even Still Be Considered Pre-Plague Events....I Believe As We Approach The End of The...

Year! It Will Really Be Full Blow!!!




"2012 Sign Of The Times, Time Of The Change.

This video is not meant to cause fear or panic, it is not meant to speculate on things to come, it is merely an observation of the things that have already, and are currently happening.

In order to get a real sense of what is happening we must look at all the events happening and connect the dots. If you only look at one event, you will only see that one event. This video covers the increase in geological (earthquake) activity, dust storms plaguing mid-America, the strange mass animal deaths taking place world wide, uncontrollable fires, strange weather patterns, the gulf stream stopping its function of circulating heat throughout the planet, Hurricanes, tidal waves, the unprecedented ice melt of this year(including the loss of 97% of Greenland's ice-sheet) the polar shift we have and will continue to be experiencing, the activity around Yellowstone that to a large extent has been covered up, the strange sounds (sky quakes) being heard world wide, solar and galactic activity."

reply to post by ResearchEverything777


Thanks for the vids

I'm going to bookmark that two hour one for later.

Do you think that these incidents are a "pre plague event" as in we should expect many more cases, maybe even a full outbreak?

Judging by the information you posted and what I have heard in the news I would definitely say that the rate of plague infections is on the rise. Let's hope this is a normal trend since these fluctuations in frequency are quite common.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Yes, I think a full outbreak is very possible by the end of this year!

I thought the plague was dead and gone so that shows how much I know about this stuff. This and the Hantavirus outbreak in Yellowstone makes nature look like it's being poisoned.

All these animals die offs are a very concerning and I'm not buying a lot of the excuses they are telling us.

reply to post by JosephKnecht


I'm hoping that someone who is more knowledgeable on this subject will stop by and comment. I can't see anything out of the ordinary other than increased news reports.

reply to post by real_one


Hantavirus is fairly common but that outbreak you mentioned was pretty intense. I have never heard of of a case like that ever before. I seldom believe the excuses we are given about mass die offs but these plague incidents seem to be legit from what I can tell.

I grew up in an area surrounding Denver.

I can remember several times that we were warned about mountain lions, but never about "The Plague".

"Hantavirus" was a common concern, as was Rabies.

It's funny how these things are now sensational headlines, while they were common knowledge for us growing up there.

reply to post by tvtexan


Do you believe that the plague headlines are sensationalized? In my opinion it seems like they are downplaying it.

The Arizona outbreak seems rather serious.

This article makes me want to bathe my dogs, vaccume my house and throw out the bag,
set off bug bombs in crawl space, treat lawn for fleas, and dump bird baths. We have fleas in SC this year that we only had one other summer in the last ten years. We are having a Roach, Fire ant, Mosquito, Tick, Flea overload this year. Winter was too mild to kill off the bugs. I can see the squirrels scratching themselves outside.

I wasn't even aware that it still exists! Thanks for posting the info, I will watch the vids in a little while.

Funny, I read this morning a little fact that blew my mind away-
The plague once killed 40% of the worlds known population, in it's biggest epidemic.

Forty percent!! My goodness, I kept thinking that it was really hard for me to imagine an epidemic of such proportions today!

reply to post by frugal


I saw the weirdest thing the other day...I was taking a quick walk to the corner store and saw a black squirrel which are very common in my area (Ontario, Canada). The thing that struck me as weird is that it started chasing me. I have never seen this before, usually I say "Hi lil squirrelly" and they run away. But this one started hissing at me and started running towards me. It was about 20 feet away. At first I was like "What the heck" and as it got closer I thought to myself that this thing is about to attack me.

I know that I could have simply kicked the squirrel or something of that nature but this animal clearly was not in good health as it looked to be rather malnourished. I'm guessing rabies or West Nile since these diseases are quite common out here. Anyways, here I am running down the sidewalk from a squirrel for all my neighbors to see simply because I didn't want to have to defend myself against this deranged squirrel and have to kill it.

I wonder if the plague could cause this type of behavior? I know the plague hasn't been seen in Canada since 1930 but your post kind of lit a light bulb above my head.

Fleas, and other bugs/rodents are a major carrier of these diseases and it would be horrible if your area were to get an outbreak of the plague as it would thrive in SC due to it's hot summers and mild winters.

reply to post by Bluesma


I also thought it was completely gone until recently. Then there are those scientists that dug up bodies from victims of the last plague epidemic just so they can study it. That really worried me because these scientists are not always as smart as they seem.

Haven't really done any research on it, but there have been cases of the plague popping up here and there over the years. They usually would make a brief mention of it on the news and then you wouldn't hear of it again until the next year. When you would hear about it popping up (usually in the south western states) it would usually be mid to late summer, and it was usually accompanied by a higher than usual population of rodents.

There were a few years when I heard nothing about the plague, and then there was a town in either New Mexico or Arizona that got completely over run by millions of rats. Soon after a few cases of the plague popped up in the area.

Even though now we know that rats do not cause the plague but rather are infested with fleas that actually carry it we must remain diligent. As economic times grow tougher people throw less away. Less trash means more rats and mice invade people's homes looking for something to eat, bringing fleas with them. Tougher times means less money for traps and poisons to get rid of the rodents, thereby bringing more risk for an outbreak.

Fortunately we have antibiotics that can treat the plague that they did not have during the dark ages, so if more medical professionals will educate themselves on spotting the signs of the plague I think we can easily circumvent an epidemic of it.

To control the plague maybe they could release a boa constrictor species able to tolerate the heat where the prairie dogs are.

The snake eats the prairie dogs and keeps their population in check. Lowering the level of fleas, and the ability of a plague epidemic able to wipe out entire colonies of prairie dogs.

Maybe there is something missing in the food chain to keep the prairie dog population in check causing the problem.

Meanwhile, radioactive elements are creeping inexorably into our bones...

Gonna take a while for that plague to manifest in increased cancers.

Surprised no one noticed that the dots you mapped out seem to stem outwards from Los Alamos.

Los Alamos National Lab: National Security Science
www.lanl.gov/

Government agencies everywhere look to us to solve difficult issues in areas like biothreats, physics, green technology, and nuclear stockpile stewardship.

reply to post by rlnochance


Good catch!

Your theory does shed some interesting possibilities on the situation.

I would not doubt that certain entities would purposely release certain viruses to study their impact on certain animal populations, and perhaps even human.

That's just me speculating though so don't take me too seriously.