Plague emerges in Grand Canyon

[classicman]

Plague emerges in Grand Canyon, kills biologist

One day last October, Eric York lugged the carcass of an adult mountain lion from his truck and laid it carefully on a tarp on the floor of his garage.

The female mountain lion had a bloody nose, but her hide bore no other signs of trauma. York, a biologist at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, found the big cat lying motionless near the canyon's South Rim. He was determined to learn why she died.

Because the park lacks a forensics lab, he did the postmortem in his garage, in a village of about 2,000 park employees.

Epidemic experts can only speculate about what happened next. When York cut into the lion, he must have released a cloud of bacteria and breathed in. On Nov. 2, York was found dead, a 21st-century victim of plague, the disease that in the Middle Ages turned Europe into a vast mortuary. He was 37.

The case mirrors events that have promoted a global surge in epidemics, among them influenza, HIV, West Nile virus and SARS. A study released this year in the journal Nature reported that about 60% of epidemics begin when a microbe makes the leap from an animal into a human.

"What will be the next emerging disease? The one we least expect," says David Morens of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Word of York's death flew among those who worked at the famed natural attraction, which draws 5 million visitors a year. For public health experts, it provoked concerns that plague might make a comeback. Experts from the National Park Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arizona Department of Health converged on the park.

Fortunately, their investigation found only 49 people who had come in contact with York. All were treated with antibiotics. None became ill, says David Wong, a National Park Service epidemiologist.

[glatt]

USA Today, on the cutting edge of news. Reporting on events that happened almost a year ago.

[LabRat]

I'm having trouble imagining he could have created a 'cloud of bacteria' dicing up a carcass, unless he was using a chainsaw. He probably just wasn't using proper universal precautions and ended up contaminating himself somehow.

Wash those hands boys and girls!!

[classicman]

I thought the same thing, glatt. I wonder if something happened more recently that made them publish this. It was apparently updated recently although I can't tell what the update is.

[barefoot serpent]

I thought fleas are the bubonic/sylvatic plague vector?

[Clodfobble]

Yes, but only because they suck the blood of infected animals (like rats) and then suck the blood of humans with the same little flea mouth. If you were to be so careless as to squirt some infected animal blood into your own blood somehow, then it would cause the same result.

[dar512]

That's bubonic plague. Pneumonic plague was spread by breathing the same air as an infected person. (So if they coughed on you...)

I get all my knowledge from science fiction.

[SamIam]

Plague is endemic here in the Southwest. Every year there are 5 or 6 cases reported in New Mexico. A few years back, people were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "New Mexico - home of the free, land of the plague." A lot of rodents around here, including squirrels, carry the disease and yet there is still almost no spread to the human population.

[Cloud]

yes, I agree with SamIam. There's always been plague around, and it occasionally crops up in the news. most people don't go cutting up infected mountain lions.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by SamIam

A few years back, people were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "New Mexico - home of the free, land of the plague."

I think it'd be better as "Land of the flea. Home of the plague."

[Sundae]

That's disrespectful to all the Americans who have died while serving in the military just to give you the right to spew hatred for your own country..

Why do you hate America, Dar?

[dar512]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

That's disrespectful to all the Americans who have died while serving in the military just to give you the right to spew hatred for your own country..

Why do you hate America, Dar?

You're in the wrong profession, SG. I think you could have a brilliant career in either talk radio or Republican campaign management.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by dar512

I think it'd be better as "Land of the flea. Home of the plague."

Thanks for jogging my memory, Dar. I think that is what those T-shirts said.

Sundae Girl, are you serious? We Americans can make little jokes like that without being considered traitors. You Brits have no sense of humor.

[HungLikeJesus]

Around here a lot of the prairie dog's have plague. (Or is that plaque? I'll have to look for that article I read last year.)

[dar512]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Sundae Girl, are you serious? We Americans can make little jokes like that without being considered traitors. You Brits have no sense of humor.

SG was being funny. It's a current meme.

My response was by way of indicating that she had the meme down pat.