A rare human case of bubonic plague was recently identified in the United States. The patient, who resides in Deschutes County, Oregon, is undergoing treatment and was likely infected by his cat.
Plague is a disease of rodents, mainly carried by rats, and transmitted to humans through flea bites. In France, the last cases to occur date from 1945, in Corsica. Nearly 50,000 human cases were reported to the WHO between 1990 and 2020 by 26 countries in Africa, Asia and America.