Veterinary epidemiologist of the National Forest Service, Danielle Buttke said there were no deceased rodents in the areas visited by the Lindquist’s, although the agency is still conducting environmental investigations of all the park’s areas.
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“The California Department of Public Health and Yosemite National Park were very proactive in their campaign to educate visitors about plague”, said Dr. Smith.
Authorities have closed the park’s Toulomne Meadows Campground and treated it with the insecticide deltamethrin to prevent the further spread of the disease, which is carried by squirrels, other small rodents and their fleas. Rodents in California, as well as those in other Western states, are known to carry the fleas that can transmit plague.
The disease first arrived in the United States in 1900. The victim visited California from Georgia and stopped in both Yosemite and the Sierra National Forest in early August, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
The individual, whose name has not been released, returned to Georgia last week from hiking in California and then became sick, Nydam said. The treatments controlled potentially plague-infected fleas which could spread the disease to humans and other warm-blooded hosts. There have been only 42 cases of human plague in California since 1970, of which nine were fatal.
Despite the recent increase in plague in California, the number of plague cases in humans seen so far in the United States this year is not out of the norm.
The CDPH confirms that plague has been confirmed in wildlife residing at the Tuolumne and Crane Flat campgrounds within Yosemite.
Plague symptoms include fever, chills, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit or groin. Today, the plague can be easily treated with antibiotics.
Humans usually get plague after being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium or by handling an animal infected with plague.
The patient has the bubonic version of the plague, which is less transmissible than the pneumonic version, said the spokeswoman, Nancy Nydam.
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Modern day antibiotics are sufficient to wipe out an infection, and incidents of the plague often occur in rural areas where the fewest humans are affected. Any individual who develops these symptoms are urged to seek medical attention and notify medical care personnel of any camping activity in the wilderness or if they have been in contact with fleas or rodents. “Although this is a rare disease, people should protect themselves from infection by avoiding any contact with wild rodents”.
