Woman contracts THE PLAGUE after being bitten by choking stray cat that she tried to save
- Woman bitten by cat choking on rodent in Oregon in June
- Symptoms including fever and pain in lymph nodes started four days later
- Bitten at the same time as friend Paul Gaylord, who hit national headlines when he contracted the disease and spent a month of life support
- Disease left his fingers and toes black, which he had amputated
- CDC has confirmed she had disease too but was saved by early detection
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A woman has narrowly escaped death after contracting the plague from a stray cat that she had tried to help while it was choking.
The woman, who has asked not to be identified, was attacked at the same time as her family friend, Paul Gaylord, when they found the distressed animal choking on a rodent in Oregon in June.
When they tried to help the cat, it bit them - and four days later the woman started showing symptoms of the infection that killed millions in the Middle Ages.
Disease-stricken: A woman caught the plague after trying to help a cat that was choking on a rodent (file picture)
Gaylord, 60, hit national headlines after he had to spend a life on month support due to the illness. His fingers and toes were left blackened by the bacteria, and he needed to have them amputated.
But after the woman began showing symptoms, including fever, chills and pain in her lymph nodes, she was treated with antibiotics at a Portland hospital. Thanks to this early detection, she survived.
'We got to her just in time,' said Karen Yeargain of the Crook County Health Department. 'If this hadn't happened, we would have had another critically ill person on our hands.'
While doctors suspected the woman had the bacterial illness, results from the Centers for Disease Control have now confirmed it, Yeargain said.
Deadly: She was bitten by a cat at the same time as Paul Gaylord, pictured, who lost his fingers and toes to the 'black death'. The woman detected the symptoms earlier and has made a full recovery
Terrible symptoms: The disease, pictured ravaging Gaylord's hands in July, killed millions in the Middle Ages and affects about seven people a year in the United States
Plague is spread through the bite of infected fleas or through direct contact with an infected animal or person. The disease is now extremely rare, with about seven cases a year in the U.S.
The woman was bitten at the same time as Gaylord, 60, by the stray cat he had adopted. It is thought that the rat was infected by fleas, which carry the disease.
After antibiotics failed to make him feel better, he was rushed to hospital when his lymph nodes swelled to the size of lemons.
In July, he underwent surgery to remove his withered, blackened fingers and toes - one of the symptoms of the terrible disease that gave it the name, the 'black death'.
Survivor: Seven-year-old Sierra Jane Downing from Colorado, pictured with her parents, also contracted the disease earlier this month from a dead squirrel on a camping trip. She has made a full recovery
A DISEASE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES
Research suggests that the bubonic plague, which used to be associated with squalor, is on the increase in affluent communities in the U.S. As more people move to natural environments where ground squirrels and woodrats live, infection increases.
The disease is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis that is spread through flea bites.
Symptoms usually appear between two and five days after exposure to the bacteria. They include gangrene of the extremities such as toes, fingers, lips and tip of the nose; fever; muscle cramps; seizures; lymph gland swelling.
Other potential symptoms include
heavy breathing, continuous vomiting of blood, aching limbs and extreme
pain, usually caused by the decay of the skin while the person is still
alive.
Without treatment the plague kills around two thirds of infected humans within four days
About 11 cases of plague a year have occured in the U.S. since 1976.
'They tell me I'm doing really good considering,' he told OregonLive.com from his hospital bed in Bend, Oregon in July.
'I do feel lucky. I'm going to have a long row to hoe but at least I have one.'
His mother, Almeda, 81, explained how close her son came to death.
'His heart stopped. His lung collapsed. They told us he wasn't going to make it,' she said.
Gaylord spent nearly a month on life support and it was so touch-and-go at one point that his son, Jake, flew in from Austin, Texas, to say goodbye.
'I was delirious,' said Mr Gaylor of his memory of the month he spent in intensive care. 'Things didn't seem real. The clock ran backwards.'
Although the plague is generally connected to the Middle Ages, the woman is the 18th person sickened by the disease in Oregon since 1934.
A seven-year-old girl, Sierra Jane Downing, also contracted the disease while on a camping trip in Colorado this month.
It is believed she caught it from a dead squirrel, who she had asked her parents if she could bury.
They said no, but she knelt beside it and doctors believe fleas could have jumped on to her sweater.
Historic illness: A picture of 1721 shows victims of the plague, which is transferred through the bite of infected fleas or through direct contact with an infected animal or person
Days after they returned from the trip, her parents found her in the bathroom having a seizure. She was rushed to hospital and treated with antibiotics once doctors realised what it was.
She will make a full recovery and has been released from hospital.
Without treatment the plague kills around two thirds of infected humans within four days. It causes an infection that kills cells, causing gangrene which also often results in amputation.
Symptoms of the plague in humans, which typically appear within four days, include fever, chills and a bloody or watery cough. In animals, it presents itself with enlarged lymph nodes under the jaw, as well as fever and tiredness.
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Mr Tibbles , Castellon Spain, 17/9/2012 22:16 +++++++ It is people like you that cause the plague in the first place. Cats were in low numbers because people didn't like them, thought that they were evil, so the rodent population grew unabated. Mice don't last long in my house!
- Toad , Toadhall, 17/9/2012 23:53
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