A rare human case of bubonic plague was recently identified in the United States, in Oregon. The patient resides in Deschutes County, in the northwest United States.
He is currently undergoing treatment and was probably infected by his cat. The disease, which caused the Black Death, a pandemic that killed at least a third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages, is rare in developed countries and can now be treated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are an average of seven cases of plague in humans each year in the U.S.