Prairie dogs infected with plague have closed parts of a suburb of Denver

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Sections of the Rocky Mountain National Arsenal Wildlife Refuge were closed at the end of July as a precautionary measure after the discovery of the disease, announced the US Fish and WIldlife Service.
Unaffected areas of refuge reopened Saturday, but other sites in Commerce City, a suburb north of Denver, will remain closed until Labor Day weekend, the Department of Labor said. Tri-County Health.

"Prairie dog colonies are monitored and burrows are treated with insecticide, but there is still evidence of fleas in hiking and camping areas, which could put people and pets at risk, so these areas will remain closed, "said John M Douglas, Jr., executive director of the Tri-County Health Department.

No human infections have been reported, he said.

Why is bubonic plague still something?

Despite its name and fatal history in the Middle Ages, plague is rare and can usually be treated, at least in the United States.

The plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is quite common in the western United States rural, including Colorado, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the CDC, seven cases of human plague have been reported annually on average in recent decades.

In general, small mammals and rodents carrying infected fleas are carriers of the disease, which can be transmitted to pets or humans through flea bites or contact with an infected mammal.

More than 80% of American cases were bubonic. Untreated bubonic plague can develop into more severe pneumonic plague, which causes rapidly developing pneumonia after the spread of the bacteria into the lungs.

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