At a time when most people are taking precautions against Zika and other mosquito borne diseases, there has been a shocking discovery. Two Counties In Arizona have been found to house Plague infected fleas. Health experts fear that contact with these fleas may very easily infect healthy human being. Being a highly communicable disease, it does not take long to spread from one person to the next.
Plague infections
The report regarding the second county's fleas being infected with plague comes just a week after it was confirmed that the fleas in Coconino County were infected with the same disease.
The recent discovery has been made in the Navajo county. Scientists fear that the plague infection may also be present in the other counties as well and are currently working on determining how bad it is.
The first case in Coconino was discovered when researchers tested out fleas on local prairie dogs. Both counties have warned residents to be extra careful while hiking or in the presence of a dead animal. Fleas are generally found near the carcass of creatures and in the wild open environments. The infection has most likely spread to rabbits, rodents, and other predators who eat the former. So, precaution must be taken while interacting with any animals.
The health departments have also urged people to avoid getting bitten by any of these animals or the fleas themselves, as the infection may spread as a result of this.
However, the plague may also be transmitted by simple contact with these animals as well. Although, it rarely shows up in the urban metropolitan locales of the world, the plague is still very much present in the world. The disease mainly crops up in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar.
In the 1300s, the Black Plague is known to have caused the death of millions of people in Europe.
The infection in those cases was so severe that scientists now suggest that it almost wiped out 60 percent of the European population back then. Even though medical science has improved tremendously since then, plague still remains one of the most feared diseases in the world.
Symptoms and treatment
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that plague is a very serious disease for which if proper treatment is not administered to the patient, death is inevitable.
There are three kinds of plague in existence, namely bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague. All of these diseases present similar symptoms which range from severe fever, weakness, and headache. So, people of the two counties should take considerable prevention against it and seek medical advice in case of any of the symptoms listed above.
