Has bubonic plague, the Black Death, been eliminated from the Earth?
No. There have even been 57 documented cases in the United States during the past decade.
But the nation ranks far below the hardest-hit countries. According to a global survey published Sept. 16 by The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Congo had 10,581 and Madagascar had 7,182.
Still, the United States is the only wealthy country on the list; 97 percent of cases are in Africa.
The Black Death killed a third of Europe in the 14th century, but cases are no longer found there, probably because cities keep rat populations down, said the author, Dr. Thomas C. Butler, a plague expert at Ross University Medical School in the West Indies.
By contrast, in the American Southwest, the bacteria have shifted into rural squirrels and prairie dogs.
Most cases come from flea bites, but a national parks biologist died after inhaling the bacteria while doing a necropsy of a mountain lion, and a 60-year-old geneticist in Chicago died, apparently after being careless with a research strain he believed was safe.
The biggest outbreaks were among gold and diamond miners in Congo.
Outbreaks were also traced to infected camel meat - one animal in Afghanistan infected 83 people. A 2009 outbreak among herdsmen in China was unusual because it was traced to dogs, which were thought to be plague-resistant.
Butler said a newly developed “dipstick test,” in which a blood sample infected with the bacteria changes color, can provide rapid diagnosis. A vaccine could be available within a decade, Butler said.
ActiveStyle, Pages 27 on 09/23/2013