Probable Source of Oregon's First Human Plague in 8 Years: A Pet Cat

This week, health officials made an announcement that caught everyone's attention in Deschutes County, a quiet part of Oregon. They revealed that a person living there has been diagnosed with the plague, which is a pretty rare thing to happen – the first case in more than eight years for the state. What's even more surprising is that the source of the infection seems to be a pet cat, as per Deschutes County Health Services.

Plague usually spreads to humans through flea bites carrying a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. And it turns out, even our furry friends can catch it if they go after rodents carrying the plague or get bitten by an infected flea.

Here's where it gets a bit tricky. If your pet, like a cat, gets the plague, they can pass it on to you through their tissues or bodily fluids. It could be something as simple as respiratory droplets when they cough or sneeze. Or, they might bring home fleas that decide to have a go at you.

Cats, with their hunting instincts, are more at risk of getting the plague. Their bodies struggle to kick out the infection, and they tend to go after rodents more than some other pets.

Now, dogs usually dodge the plague bullet, but there's this exception. Back in 2014, Colorado had a surprise with four cases of plague linked to a pit bull terrier. The infected included the dog's owner and a couple of folks working at a vet clinic.

Dr. Richard Fawcett, the health officer for Deschutes County, filled in some details about the recent case. The cat in question was seriously unwell, showing signs like a draining abscess – a clear signal of a pretty hefty infection.

So, in a nutshell, the plague made a rare appearance in Oregon, and it seems a sick kitty might be the culprit. It's a reminder to keep an eye on our pets and their health, especially when they're out on the prowl for those mischievous rodents. Stay safe, everyone!

The owner probably got sick from a bubonic plague infection that started in a lymph node, according to Fawcett. By the time they went to the hospital, the infection had spread to their bloodstream. The good news is, the patient responded well to antibiotics.

However, some doctors think the patient might have developed a cough in the hospital, which could be an early sign of pneumonic plague, a version that spreads among humans. Fawcett isn't sure if the disease progressed that far.

To be cautious, doctors gave antibiotics to the patient's close contacts to prevent potential infections from turning into symptoms. Fawcett said it would be surprising if more cases show up.

Before this week, Oregon hadn't seen a human plague case since 2015, when a teenage girl presumably got infected from a flea bite during a hunting trip.

Plague usually pops up around seven times a year in the U.S., mostly in the rural West. The hot spot is in the Four Corners region near Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. Cases are concentrated in places like northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, southern Colorado, California, southern Oregon, and western Nevada.

David Wagner from Northern Arizona University’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute says we don't fully understand why plague sporadically appears in central Oregon. The disease tends to show up in semi-arid forests and grasslands where many rodent species live.

Fawcett isn't sure why cases sporadically show up in central Oregon, saying they don't have many issues with fleas or rodents carrying plague. The recent patient in Deschutes County lives in a rural-suburban neighborhood with open land nearby.

Deschutes County Health Services advises pet owners to keep their animals on a leash outdoors, use flea control products, and see a vet if their pets get sick after touching a rodent. They also urge people to avoid contact with rodents and not feed squirrels or chipmunks.

In the United States, over 80% of plague cases are of the bubonic type, where the infection is limited to the lymph nodes. If someone is bitten by an infected flea or comes into contact with an infected animal, symptoms typically appear within two to eight days.

The primary indicator of bubonic plague is swollen and painful lymph nodes. Other symptoms include a sudden fever, nausea, weakness, chills, or muscle aches. Doctors diagnose the infection through blood or tissue samples and then treat it with antibiotics.

Dr. Wagner points out that the current bubonic plague is different from the one in the 14th century, which devastated Europe. In today's era of antibiotics, the disease is easily treatable.

However, if bubonic plague is not treated promptly, bacteria can enter the bloodstream, leading to sepsis, or septicemic plague. Signs of a bloodstream infection include extreme weakness, abdominal pain, or bleeding from the nose, mouth, or under the skin. Skin may also darken, particularly on the nose, fingers, and toes.

Untreated bubonic or septicemic infections can progress to pneumonic plague, a potentially deadly lung infection. Pneumonic plague can also be contracted directly by inhaling infectious droplets.

Dr. Fawcett emphasizes that different forms of plague can coexist simultaneously, and the transition between stages or when the disease becomes contagious is not entirely clear. Despite this, he expresses confidence in Deschutes County's low overall risk. As long as the health department closely monitors contacts, he believes there is hardly any significant risk to the community.