# Bubonic Plague Found In Los Angles. One woman infected, so far. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 19, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291 "2006-04-19T14:12:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/21 "2006-04-19T21:20:12Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > I think you mostly have to worry only if your cats are regularly coming into contact with rats or other rodents. It’s possible that your cats could get it, but not terribly likely if they’re indoor cats (unless, of course, your house is infested with rodents, and then you’ve got other problems). Actually, here in Chicago we’ve had a horrible problem with mice, particularly this year. We always get a few, but we had probably a dozen this year. Now I’m kinda freaked. ---
**Author:** ![Hombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecb155/32.png) [@Hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hombre)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/22 "2006-04-19T22:35:51Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > The patient on House last night had the plague. It’s not all that rare. > > What I want to know is, what are my chances of picking it up from my “always in” cats? We’re moving to NM eventually, and I want to be sure I take the proper precautions. Do those fleas infect house pets very often? Will it kill my cats? There is a chance. Your bigger problem will be keeping your cat from becoming coyote food. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/23 "2006-04-19T22:41:25Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Actually, here in Chicago we’ve had a horrible problem with mice, particularly this year. We always get a few, but we had probably a dozen this year. Now I’m kinda freaked. If there were mice in my apartment, plague or no plague, I’d be freaked. :eek: I don’t even like it when there are bugs in my apartment. > [@Hombre](#): > > Your bigger problem will be keeping your cat from becoming coyote food. For an indoor cat? :eek: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/24 "2006-04-19T22:58:58Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > …it is generally associated with ground squirrels, especially the ubiquitous Beechy Ground Squirrel, … If I got the Plague, I think I’d be a little **Beechy** , too. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/25 "2006-04-19T23:26:24Z")
I had Scarlet Fever once. If I hadn’t been so damned sick, I would have thought it was cool. But 18 hours on PenVK, and I was ready to go back to work. A lot of those old killer diseases are still with us. It’s just not all that hard to get cured. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/26 "2006-04-20T03:49:50Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > The patient on House last night had the plague. It’s not all that rare. > > What I want to know is, what are my chances of picking it up from my “always in” cats? We’re moving to NM eventually, and I want to be sure I take the proper precautions. Do those fleas infect house pets very often? Will it kill my cats? Use Advantage or Frontline on them even if they don’t go outside. As people have said The Plague is treatable, I’d worry more about Hantavirus or that soil fungus whose name escapes me (Coccidiomycoides?)… Or Killer Bees. I heard they’re finally here. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/27 "2006-04-20T04:04:19Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Is there perhaps an epidemic of rats in LA that we don’t know about? Well, there are all those celebrities. Plague is pretty much a non-issue. What scares me more is hantavirus (and I’d have to spend a lot more time in the Four Corners area to even be at any risk.) In fact, I initially hard a hard time taking Camus’ _The Plague_ seriously, though I’m well aware of the fact that that’s not the point of the novel. **Kalhoun** , what part of New Mexico? That’ll change (slightly) the answers to your questions. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/28 "2006-04-20T04:28:44Z")
> [@Wile E](#): > > Use Advantage or Frontline on them even if they don’t go outside. As people have said The Plague is treatable, I’d worry more about Hantavirus or that soil fungus whose name escapes me (Coccidiomycoides?)… > Or Killer Bees. I heard they’re finally here. Actually, a lot of people get coccidioidomycosis, or Valley Fever. I’ve had it at some point, as my blood shows a titer to it, and I didn’t even know it. One doctor told me that if you’ve lived in Arizona for 10 years, you’ve probably had it. Sometimes there are no symptoms, a lot of times the symptoms are mild, like a lingering cough, and fairly rarely the fungus spreads to other systems and can cause a problem. It’s pretty common for pets to get it, and it causes a lot more problems in them. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/29 "2006-04-20T04:55:18Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > If I got the Plague, I think I’d be a little **Beechy** , too. Darn you to heck! _muttersstealingmyjokemutters_ ---
**Author:** ![Hombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecb155/32.png) [@Hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hombre)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/30 "2006-04-20T05:02:14Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > For an indoor cat? :eek: :eek: I lived there for 5 years. It was the running joke and there were no a lot of cats… indoor or no. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/31 "2006-04-20T08:35:40Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > I had Scarlet Fever once. If I hadn’t been so damned sick, I would have thought it was cool. But 18 hours on PenVK, and I was ready to go back to work. A lot of those old killer diseases are still with us. It’s just not all that hard to get cured. > > Tris But did you have to burn the velveteen rabbit of your childhood afterwards?! Enquiring minds want to know!! ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/32 "2006-04-20T08:51:40Z")
We’ve been living with the plague for awhile now. There was an article about its effects on black-footed ferrets & ground hogs the other day in the [NYT.](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/science/18ferr.html?hp&ex=1145332800&en=d3e0432f1b4bba27&ei=5094&partner=homepage) > [@](#): > > The plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis, is the same one that caused the Black Death in Europe. It came to the West Coast of the United States from China around 1900, and slowly spread in rodents and other animals to the Rocky Mountain West. Black-footed ferrets are extremely sensitive to plague. ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/33 "2006-04-20T20:54:13Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I knew a guy who knew a guy who got the plague. He got better. This is a non-story. Likewise. A woman I know had it. Got it doing research on prairie dogs, I believe. She’s fine. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/34 "2006-04-21T04:13:41Z")
Modern antibiotics are a wonderful thing. [This](http://www.lorebrandcomics.com/) hangs on my wall at work. In a pharmacy. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/35 "2006-04-21T04:38:44Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Bubonic Plague Found In Los Angles. One woman infected, so far. Just curious, where is **Los Angles**? Is it near **Los Parabolas**? ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/36 "2006-04-21T09:43:08Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > Now _this_ is a situation for Jack Bauer. > > Incidentally, when do we really start panicking over bird flu? When the H2N2 virus mutates so that it can start passing person-to-person. As long as it’s still bird-to-person and bird-to-bird, it’s not time to panic yet. DON’T PANIC may I interest you in this large fluffy towel? ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/37 "2006-04-21T09:52:40Z")
> [@trublmakr](#): > > Actually, a lot of people get coccidioidomycosis, or Valley Fever. I’ve had it at some point, as my blood shows a titer to it, and I didn’t even know it. One doctor told me that if you’ve lived in Arizona for 10 years, you’ve probably had it. Sometimes there are no symptoms, a lot of times the symptoms are mild, like a lingering cough, and fairly rarely the fungus spreads to other systems and can cause a problem. When I lived in the Mississippi Valley (Memphis) it was truly incredible how many of the people I autopsied had histoplasmosis. Histoplasmosis is the Mississippi answer to coccidioidomycosis. I had just come from NYC, so when I saw a Ghon complex (swollen pulmonary hilar lymph nodes with grossly recognizable granulomas, small subpleural focus) I freaked about TB. At first I was doing special stains on everyone, and the old docs were laughing at me. Then I started feeling like maybe the first diagnosis on the differential was histo, and the second was TB. After a while I learned to recognize the little fungal buggers at the edges of the necrosis iin the granuloma, and then I gave up thinking about TB. Never saw a case of TB the whole time I was in Memphis. I particularly remember a ripe granulomatous mass in the hilum of a lung that had achieved clementine size. So big, that it was pushing up on the pulmonary veins and slightly distorting them. This man got a bullet through the hilum, and he bled to death internally. I always wondered if he bled faster because his goombah was pushing up on his hilar structures. It was a histoplasmoma. He was otherwise muscular and healthy, and probably had no idea he had a goombah next to his lung. Everyone in Memphis has sinus problems. After a while I started getting them too. It was no great stretch of the imagination to wonder if I had got my histo infection, developed my quiescent Ghon complex, and was now hyperreacting to histo blown in whenever a storm stirred up the river dust. No proof of the hypothesis, but I secretly believe in it. By the way - had to get to Virginia to get exposed to a real full-blown god-honest case of TB. Which came to us from Kentucky. ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/38 "2006-04-21T09:58:07Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Well, there are all those celebrities. > > Plague is pretty much a non-issue. What scares me more is hantavirus (and I’d have to spend a lot more time in the Four Corners area to even be at any risk.) In fact, I initially hard a hard time taking Camus’ _The Plague_ seriously, though I’m well aware of the fact that that’s not the point of the novel. > > **Kalhoun** , what part of New Mexico? That’ll change (slightly) the answers to your questions. By the way, is it done to answer a thread three times in a row? I can only post from home, and generally in the early AM or sometimes late PM hours. Am I overloading a thread when I answer like this? Please, somebdy correct my board etiquette. I just wanted to say - I was finishing medical school when AIDS appeared on the horizon as a strange disease in gay men. Then we realized anyone could catch it, and it turned into plague. It was plague for a while. That is, the human race hauled out and re-manifested all the hoary responses to a plague. We get scared and nasty and, rarely, merciful and self-sacrificial, in the exact same Camusian way, every century or so. The only new thing is our current expectation that there won’t be plagues. Just because Yersinia isn’t a dangerous plague any more doesn’t mean plagues have left us. The bacteria and the viruses are always evolving and who knows what or when the next will be. Can guarantee you human nature will be the same when the next one shows up. Ain’t pretty. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/39 "2006-04-21T14:52:33Z")
> [@gabriela](#): > > I always wondered if he bled faster because his goombah was pushing up on his hilar structures. Hey, didn’t they do a Soprano’s episode about this? ---
**Author:** ![yingtongtiddleipo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/f6c823/32.png) [@yingtongtiddleipo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yingtongtiddleipo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291/40 "2006-04-21T14:57:46Z")
oh dear… I just read this whole thread as plaque rather than plague… :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plague-found-in-los-angles-one-woman-infected-so-far/353291.md?page=3)