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Rare Human Case of Bubonic Plague in Oregon Confirmed by Authorities
The bubonic plague might sound like an affliction of the past, but the bacterium behind the disease is still out there, causing thousands of human infections worldwide, year after year, although cases in the US are relatively rare.
The state of Oregon just confirmed its first case in eight years, and officials say it probably came from a domestic cat, which also showed symptoms.
Oregon health officer Richard Fawcett told Aria Bendix at NBC News that the patient who contracted the plague from their pet became "very sick".
Usually, an infection of this kind starts with flu-like symptoms, including fatigue, fever, chills, and a headache.
The recent infection in Oregon, however, had progressed to the point of a draining abscess, called a "bubo", which is a rare outcome nowadays.
Thankfully, modern antibiotics mean that the bubonic plague no longer has to be a death sentence. The bacterium behind the infection, Yersinia pestis, rarely proves fatal if caught and treated early enough.
The patient in Oregon is apparently responding well to modern medicine, and their close contacts have also been treated to curb the possibility of further spread.
Officials have not said how the infection spread from the cat to the owner, but if the cat was bitten by infected fleas, the pet might have brought the fleas home, exposing the owner, too. Either that, or the owner may have been in contact with the cat's own contaminated fluids.
Y. pestis usually infects small mammals and fleas, and depending on how it spreads to humans, either by bites, contaminated fluids, or droplets in the air, it can cause bubonic plague or a blood- or lung-based plague.
Bubonic plague is the most common form and involves the lymphatic system, causing swollen and painful lymph nodes that can advance to open, pus-filled sores.
If the infection spreads, it can later infect the lungs as well. The patient in Oregon apparently began coughing in hospital, which is a sign that their disease may have been progressing to a dangerous stage.
The plague was first identified in the US in the early 20th century, brought to the nation via rats on ships.
The last urban plague epidemic in the country ended in 1925, but the bacteria took refuge in rural rodent species, causing periodic outbreaks outside of major cities.
Today, most cases in the US occur in rural areas of the midwest and northwest, with about seven cases reported on average each year.
The last time a case was reported in Oregon was back in 2015, when a girl was infected during a hunting trip and ended up in intensive care.
No deaths have been reported in the state from the plague in decades.
Outside of the US, the plague is present on every continent bar Oceania, and yet the places where the disease regularly occurs are those with resident animal reservoirs and overlapping human populations, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
During particularly bad outbreaks, the disease can claim hundreds of lives.
Still, compared to the Black Death that struck Europe in the 15th century and a 19th century outbreak in China and India that killed millions upon millions, the bubonic plague is not the international killer it once was.
Even so, thanks to its former infamy, a single case in the US can still make headlines – even when the patient is successfully treated, and the contagion stopped in its tracks.
注释：
Bubonic: adj; n
表示"腹股沟腺炎的; 腺鼠疫"，如：The bubonic plague swept off most of the villagers. 那场淋巴腺鼠疫夺去了大部分村民的生命
contract: v
表示" 缩小; 感染（疾病）"，means "make smaller, shrink;catch an illness"，如：The heat contracted the woollen garment. 高温让羊毛衣缩小了。She has contracted a severe fever. 她感染上了严重的热病。
abscess: n
表示"脓肿；脓疮"，如：He has a bad abscess under that tooth. 他那颗牙下边有一处脓肿。
bubo: n
表示" 腹股沟淋巴结炎"，如：According to the doctor's diagnosis, he has the symptoms of bubo. 经医生诊断，他的症状是横痃。
lymphatic: n; adj
表示"淋巴管; 淋巴的"，means "of or relating to or produced by lymph"，如：On medicine, according to the origin of haemal cell, haemal tumour cent is lymphatic sex tumour and pith sex tumour. 在医学上，根据血液细胞的来源，将血液肿瘤分为淋巴性肿瘤和髓性肿瘤。
lymph: n
表示"淋巴"，如：I've got an inflammation of lymph.我的淋巴发炎了。
overlap: v
表示"相互重叠"，means " cover (sth) partly and go beyond it"，如：A fish's scales overlap each other. 鱼鳞是一片片上下交叠起来的。
infamy: n
表示" 声名狼藉；臭名"，如：His name will live in infamy. 他的名字将与臭名共存。
中文简要说明：
美国奥勒冈州刚刚确认了8年来的第一起鼠疫人类病例，而且病况颇为严重。官员称，该病例可能来自家猫，因为猫咪也出现了症状。
科学警报(Science Alert)报导，奥勒冈州卫生官员福塞特 (Richard Fawcett)告诉媒体，这名患者的病情「非常严重」，所幸现代医疗的抗生素把他从重病中挽救回来。
报导称，鼠疫的初期感染症状类似流感，包括疲劳、发烧、发冷和头痛，然而之后会出现淋巴肿大，甚至淋巴流脓的程度。这名患者就出现这种严重症状，称为「腹股沟淋巴结炎」，在当今已相当罕见果。
值得庆幸的是，现代抗生素意味着黑死病不再是死刑。这名患者及时接受抗生素，并且反应良好。另外，与他密切接触者也得到了治疗，以遏制进一步传播的可能性。
医疗官员没有透露猫是怎么被传染的，可能在户外玩耍时，被受感染的跳蚤咬伤，宠物把跳蚤带回家，从而使主人也暴露在病菌之中。
鼠疫杆菌通常会感染小型哺乳动物和跳蚤，根据其传播给人类的方式（透过叮咬、受污染的液体，或空气中的飞沫），引起腺鼠疫、血鼠疫或肺鼠疫，每一个都非常可怕。
鼠疫在中世纪夺走无数性命，它导致淋巴结肿胀和疼痛，并可能发展成开放性、充满脓液的疮口，病患在死前的模样非常恐怖，所以被称为黑死病，也成为往后重大传染病的代称。
历史学家认为，鼠疫可能造成宗教的衰落、人文主义的抬头，因为「黑死病前人人平等」，再怎么虔敬信仰，仍然不免罹病，一样死状凄惨，人们意识到，生病不是什么神罚，就是遭感染了。大家都知道牛顿与苹果树的故事，牛顿之所以返回乡下老家，正是因为伦敦当时遇到鼠疫疫情，牛顿所求学的三一学院停课，他在返家时，思考到改变科学界的三大运动定律。
鼠疫也造成明朝的灭亡，15世纪，华北爆发严重鼠疫，接连数省，导致北京周围的人口锐减，无力抵抗李自成的叛匪，更无力对抗关外的女真蛮族。
一但感染扩散，鼠疫杆菌侵入肺部，那就可能形成肺鼠疫，每一个咳嗽都可能散布病原。奥勒冈州的这名患者也出现咳嗽症状，表明发展到相当危险阶段。
美国的鼠疫疫情在20世纪初，是货船上的老鼠，沿着泊船的绳索进入美国。美国上一次城市鼠疫流行于1925 年结束，但是已散播到农村，导致大城市以外的地区，还是经常爆发鼠疫。
所幸在现代医学的压制之下，美国的鼠疫病例只限制在中西部和西北部的农村地区，平均每年仅7例。
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