Has a California resident tested positive for the plague in 2025?
A person living in South Lake Tahoe, California has tested positive for the plague. They are being treated by a doctor at home and are getting better.
Plague is a serious, potentially fatal infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis. It naturally circulates among rodent populations and can be transmitted to humans through flea bites, contact with infected animals, or inhalation of respiratory droplets in the case of pneumonic plague.
What is septicemic plague?
Septicemic plague is a form where Yersinia pestis multiplies in the bloodstream. It can result from untreated bubonic or pneumonic plague or occur independently. Symptoms include fever, chills, abdominal pain, bleeding under the skin and from bodily orifices, gangrene, shock, and organ failure. It is often fatal if untreated.
What animal causes the plague?
The plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is primarily transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas that live on wild rodents such as rats, squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs, and other small mammals.
What are the types of plague?
There are three main types of plague:
Bubonic plague: most common, characterized by swollen lymph nodes (buboes).
Septicemic plague: occurs when bacteria infects the blood, leading to symptoms like bleeding and gangrene.
Pneumonic plague: affects the lungs and is contagious via respiratory droplets.
How Do People Get the Plague?
People usually get the plague from a flea bite. Fleas carry the bacteria after feeding on sick animals like squirrels, chipmunks, or other rodents.
What are the symptoms of the plague?
Plague symptoms vary depending on the type but commonly include sudden high fever, chills, headache, weakness, muscle aches, and swollen, painful lymph nodes (called buboes) in bubonic plague. Septicemic plague can cause abdominal pain, bleeding, and tissue death (gangrene), while pneumonic plague affects the lungs, causing cough with bloody mucus, chest pain, and difficulty breathing.
What are the symptoms of bubonic plague?
Bubonic plague symptoms include swollen, painful lymph nodes (buboes) in the groin, armpits, or neck; sudden fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, and sometimes vomiting. Buboes can grow to several centimeters and may burst if untreated.
Can the Plague Be Treated?
Yes. If doctors find it early, the plague can be treated with antibiotics, and most people recover fully.
What is the treatment for plague?
Plague is treated with antibiotics such as gentamicin, streptomycin, doxycycline, ciprofloxacin, and levofloxacin. Early treatment, ideally within 24 hours of symptom onset, is critical for survival. Treatment usually lasts 10 to 14 days and often begins with intravenous antibiotics.
How Can You Stay Safe?
Do not feed wild animals like squirrels.
Do not touch sick or dead rodents.
Keep your pets away from wild animals so they don’t bring home fleas.
Is the plague still around today?
Yes, plague still exists primarily in rural and semi-rural areas globally where infected wild rodents and fleas live. The WHO reports 1,000 to 2,000 cases annually worldwide. In the U.S., about 7 cases per year occur, mainly in southwestern states. Modern antibiotics have greatly reduced death rates, but isolated infections continue.
What are some important plague facts and statistics?
The Black Death pandemic killed an estimated 75-200 million people in the 14th century.
Yersinia pestis was discovered in 1894.
Untreated bubonic plague has a 30-60% fatality rate; untreated septicemic and pneumonic plague can be nearly 100% fatal.
Early treatment reduces death rates to less than 5%.
Pneumonic plague is the only type spread person-to-person via respiratory droplets.
Plague remains endemic in parts of Africa, Asia, and the western U.S., especially rural areas with rodent hosts.
