Can You Still Get the Plague?

Plague is one of the deadliest diseases humans have ever faced—only smallpox is responsible for taking more lives. The origins of plague epidemics were once considered mysterious. That left people powerless to stop it as the disease ravaged populations across Europe during the Middle Ages, taking the lives of an estimated 25 million people.

In the mid 17th century, the plague claimed the lives of as much as one-fifth of the population of London. Victims were buried in hastily-made, unmarked, underground graves. When the underground train system was first built 200 years later, legend has it that engineers chose meandering routes for their tunnels in order to avoid these so-called plague pits. Evidence doesn’t back up this lore, though. There are no mentions of plague pits in the rail’s records. The meandering track lines are also easily explained by economics, for example, by avoiding private property to make construction cheaper.

Three cases of plague were reported this month—that's November of 2019—by hospitals in and near Beijing, China.

The source of the plague is no longer mysterious. We now know that the plague is an infection caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. But our plague legends persist in part because of the extreme devastation the disease caused. Plague is also not entirely a thing of the past. Three cases of plague were reported this month—that's November of 2019—by hospitals in and near Beijing, China. All three patients are from inner Mongolia where two fatal cases were already reported this year.

Globally, the World Health Organization recorded 3,248 cases of plague between 2010 and 2015. Those cases resulted in 584 deaths. So why isn’t the plague a thing of the past? And can you still catch it?

How do you catch the plague?

People usually catch the plague when they are bitten by fleas that have previously bitten infected rodents or by handling those rodents directly. Rodents affected by the plague are mostly found in rural areas in:

• Asia
• Africa (particularly in Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• South America (especially in Peru)
• the United States

In the United States, cases have primarily been reported in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado.

What is the plague?

There are three main categories of the plague depending on what part of the body is predominantly infected.

Bubonic plague is the most common strain. Sufferers develop swollen and sensitive lymph nodes called buboes. Those swollen glands are sometimes as large as an egg around the groin, armpits, and neck.

Septicemic plague infects your bloodstream and can lead to...

Keep reading on Quick and Dirty Tips