California health officials have confirmed a case of plague at South Lake Tahoe — the first one in California since 2015.
China had reported its first case of the bubonic plague on July 6. The bubonic plague has claimed many lives in the Middle Ages. But human occurrences of the disease have become rare as medical science has been able to find ways to contain it and treat it effectively
California Department of Public Health confirmed the case after a resident who was under medical care at home tested positive on Monday.
Health officials believe the South Lake Tahoe resident may have been bitten by a plague infected flea while walking a dog along the Truckee River corridor or in the Tahoe Keys area.
Symptoms of plague manifest two weeks after a person has been exposed to it and these include fever, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes.
The last reported human cases of plague in California were in 2015 when two people were exposed to infected rodents or their fleas in Yosemite National Park, though officials found that 20 squirrels or chipmunks in the South Lake Tahoe were exposed to the plague bacterium from 2016 to 2019.
El Dorado County Public Health Officer Dr. Nancy Williams was quoted in a CNN report as saying, “It's important that individuals take precautions for themselves and their pets when outdoors, especially while walking, hiking and/or camping in areas where wild rodents are present.”
