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(News)
– A woman in Wyoming has contracted pneumonic plague, the most severe form of plague and the only one that can be passed from person to person, which she likely caught from her cats. The state health department reported the seventh human case of Wyoming plague in 43 years – a “rare but serious” case in a woman in northern Fremont County on September 15 – noting that the disease was reportedly transmitted by “contact with sick pet cats,” “reports Live Science. The CDC notes that cats are” a common source of Yersinia pestis [plague] infection in humans. ”
Overall plague cases are rare in the United States, with only about seven cases each year. About 80% of them are due to bubonic plague, which is often spread by bites from fleas or infected animals. Pulmonary plague occurs when Yersinia pestis reaches the lungs. It can then spread from animal to animal and person to person through infectious droplets, much like COVID-19. Symptoms include “fever, headache, weakness, and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, and sometimes watery or bloody mucous membranes,” according to the department.
The authorities are contacting those who may have been in contact with the woman to offer her a seven-day course of antibiotics. But only one case has been identified so far, according to Gizmodo. The CDC notes that early treatment in a confirmed case of pulmonary plague is “essential. … To reduce the risk of death, antibiotics should be given within 24 hours of the first symptoms.” The death rate for plague cases in the United States is around 11%, according to the agency. The woman continues to show severe symptoms, a health department epidemiologist told Gizmodo. (A 10-year-old died of plague in Colorado this summer.)
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