# It’s baaaack - the Black Death plague! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 13, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378 "2019-11-13T20:05:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/1 "2019-11-13T20:05:58Z")
I know this stuff pops up occasionally, but this part of the story caught my eye. Quoth CNN: “in May, a Mongolian couple died from bubonic plague after eating the raw kidney of a marmot” [https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/13/health/china-plague-intl-hnk-scn-scli/index.html](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/13/health/china-plague-intl-hnk-scn-scli/index.html) Those Mongols… they make good rock music though. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/2 "2019-11-13T20:16:29Z")
Ewwwww! Who eats raw rodent kidneys? Or, cooked for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/3 "2019-11-13T20:31:29Z")
Did it ever really leave? From Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > From 2010 to 2015 more than 3,000 people were reported worldwide with this disease with more cases being diagnosed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Madagascar and in Peru. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/4 "2019-11-13T21:30:13Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Did it ever really leave? > > From Wikipedia: It never has. There are cases every year in the US. It can be treated by antibiotics so it’s not that big a story anymore. > **[Plague surveillance | CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/plague/maps/index.html)** > > Information on where plague cases occur in the United States, and how many have occurred in recent years. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/5 "2019-11-13T21:44:33Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Who eats raw rodent kidneys? It’s Mongolia’s version of [Freshen Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5sGX8VM22E). ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/6 "2019-11-13T22:26:57Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Did it ever really leave? From the OP > [@](#): > > I know this stuff pops up occasionally… I was mostly sharing the raw marmot kidney bit. Presumably served with fava bean and a nice Chianti. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/7 "2019-11-13T23:04:50Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > It’s Mongolia’s version of [Freshen Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5sGX8VM22E). Gross me out the back door! ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/8 "2019-11-14T05:45:59Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > It never has. There are cases every year in the US. It can be treated by antibiotics so it’s not that big a story anymore. > > [Maps and Statistics | Plague | CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/plague/maps/index.html) I’m really curious about that case in Chicago… ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/9 "2019-11-14T05:55:05Z")
When I was a kid in San Diego and I’d go to school/church camps out in east county, there’d often be signage all over the place warning people that squirrels carry plague and not to handle them. So yeah, it never went away. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/10 "2019-11-14T09:50:33Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I’m really curious about that case in Chicago… Chicago is a major transportation hub - infected rodent probably hitched a ride from somewhere else and wound up there. That is, after all, how \*Y. pestis \*came to North America in the first place. I would have hypothesized that it was an already infected traveler showing symptoms in Chicago, but the website said it was indicating most likely county of _exposure_, which means they think someone(s) got \*infected \*in the Chicago area. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/11 "2019-11-14T11:36:09Z")
It’s the Black Death, and it’s [coming for youuuuu!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNdZbJjJotw) ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/12 "2019-11-14T13:50:29Z")
Since the bacteria is usually in the fleas (and the fleas on the rats, and the buboes grew all around and around, and the buboes grew all around) it probably wouldn’t have mattered if the kidneys were cooked or not. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/13 "2019-11-14T13:59:47Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Ewwwww! Who eats raw rodent kidneys? Or, cooked for that matter. It probably started like every other disgusting food worldwide: Person 1: I dare you to eat that… Person 2: Hold my beer! (or, in the case of the Mongols, “hold my [kumis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumis)!”) ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/14 "2019-11-14T14:13:03Z")
People who live in the desert or nearby can be exposed by squirrels, prairie dogs, other rodents. City folk visiting like to coo over those cute little fuzzy-wuzzies, and try to hand feed them junk food. So, you can catch bubonic plague. Even better, th cute little fuzzy-wuzzies could be rabid. In my neverending battle with the Gawdforsaken deer mice (creepy alien invaders), we could be exposed to the Hanta virus! Hanta is fun. You get a little cold, a little cough, then your lungs fill up with blood and you are dead the next day. All you rodents and wildlife, BACK OFF! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/15 "2019-11-14T14:22:03Z")
Nitpick: Some scholars think that _Yersinia pestis_ (bubonic plague) was not the only, or even the major, pathogen of the 14th-century Black Death. An unidentified (Ebola-like) virus has been proposed as the culprit, as well as [the anthrax bacterium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_the_Black_Death#Anthrax), _Bacillus anthracis_. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/16 "2019-11-14T19:07:59Z")
“I know this will come as a shock to you, Mr. Goldwyn, but in all history, which has held billions and billions of human beings, not a single one ever had a happy ending.” -Dorothy Parker ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/17 "2019-11-14T19:14:12Z")
Beaver is hunted in southwest Alaska, and parts of it (mainly the tail and paws) are fermented and eaten raw. This accounts for most of the botulism poisoning for that area. From an online article about an outbreak in 2001: > [@](#): > > . . .the tail and paws had been wrapped in a paper rice sack and stored for up to 3 months in the entry of a patient’s house. Some of the beaver tail and paw had been added to the sack as recently as 1 week before it was eaten. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/18 "2019-11-14T19:24:55Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Beaver is hunted in southwest Alaska, and parts of it (mainly the tail and paws) are fermented and eaten raw. This accounts for most of the botulism poisoning for that area. From an online article about an outbreak in 2001: That makes me swear off eating beaver. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/19 "2019-11-14T20:54:13Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > That makes me swear off eating beaver. Well, _fermented_ beaver, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378/20 "2019-11-14T21:29:59Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > That makes me swear off eating beaver. Another marriage ruined by the SDMB. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-baaaack-the-black-death-plague/843378.md?page=2)