After a California resident tested positive for plague, likely due to being bitten by an inflected flea, as the health officials have said on Tuesday, August 19, the threat of plague is lingering again. As per the reports, the person was camping in South Lake Tahoe area, and it was in this region when such an infection was previously reported in 2020.READ: California Resident Tests Positive For Plague, Officials Trace Case Back To Lake Tahoe FleaWhile the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do note that on an average, seven people are diagnoses with a confirm case of plague each year in the US, it is now treatable with antibiotics. The CDC also notes that over 80% of the US plague cases are in the bubonic form, or also known as the "black plague".Are There More Than One Form Of Plague?Before we get into the different kinds of plagues, it is important to understand what exactly is plague.It is an illness that you can get from the bacterium Yersinia pestis or the Y pestis. It is a zoonotic disease, which means you can get it from animals and they also can get it from you. The disease usually spreads through bites from fleas that have been infected by biting an infected animal.The type of plague depends on where in your body Y pestis ends up. Bubonic PlagueIt is the most common form of plague and is the most survivable too. It has a quick antibiotic treatment, with a 95% chance of recovering, notes the Cleveland Clinic. It makes one or more lymph nodes painful and swollen and the affected lymph nodes are usually near where an infected flea bit.ALSO READ: Has The Black Death Returned? List Of Dreadful Symptoms Of The Bubonic PlagueSepticemic PlagueThis is when Y pestis gets into your blood. It can destroy your tissues, lead to gangrene and even organ failure.How can you get a septicemic plague?From a flea biteBody fluids of an infected animal getting into a break in your skinY pestis is moving to your blood from another part of your body, also known as secondary infectionPneumonic PlagueThis happens when Y pestis gets into your lungs. It is the least common and the most dangerous type of plague. This can spread from person to person through coughing and sneezing like a common cold. You can also get it from close contact with an infected animal or from a bacteria which may have moved to your lungs from another part of your body, through secondary infection.ALSO READ: Pneumonic Plague Death Raises Alarm, Can Prairie Dogs Be The Cause Of It? This can also cause severe pneumonia and respiratory failure. How Does Plague Spread?the CDC notes that the bacteria is most often transmitted by the bite of an infected flea. During plague epizootics, many rodents die, causing hungry fleas to seek other sources of blood. This is when people and animal that visit places where rodents have recently died become most at risk of plague. Dogs and cats may also bring plague-infected fleas into home. Another way is also when humans become infected when handling a tissue or body fluids of a plague-infected animal. For instance, a butcher skinning of an infected animal without using precautions. Furthermore, if an infected person coughs, then someone close to them can also catch it. This requires a direct and close contact with the person. However, the CDC also notes that person-to-person spread has not been documented in the United States since 1924, but there continue to be rare cases of pneumonic plague among people exposed to sick cats.What Lessons Has The Bubonic Plague Taught Us?The UNESCO notes that the bubonic plague, often remembered as the Black Death of the 14th century, devastated societies across Eurasia, killing tens of millions. Yet, its history holds important lessons for how we think about epidemics today, especially in an age of rapid globalization and frequent outbreaks like COVID-19.One of the clearest reminders from the plague is that disease does not require modern technology to spread. Long before airplanes, trains, and cruise ships, the plague travelled swiftly along the Silk Roads, carried by infected rodents, fleas, and merchants. This shows that restricting human movement and exchange is not a guaranteed solution to epidemics. People have always migrated, traded, and shared ideas across vast distances—and this interconnectedness, while it facilitated disease, also enriched societies in countless ways.In fact, the Silk Roads highlight a second major lesson: human progress has always depended on exchange and collaboration. Along these routes, not only did goods travel, but also science, medicine, literature, and technologies. During the medieval era, the translation and circulation of medical knowledge across cultures, drawing from Greek, Roman, Chinese, and Indian traditions, laid foundations that shaped later advances in health and medicine. Even while diseases spread, knowledge spread too, and in many ways became our strongest defense.The Black Death also spurred the evolution of public health measures. In the 14th century, societies lacked accurate understanding of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium behind plague, and treatments were ineffective. Fleeing infected areas was often the only option. However, the devastation prompted new strategies, most famously, the Venetian practice of keeping ships and travelers isolated for 40 days before entering the city. This became known as quarantine, a concept still central to disease control today.What Is Different Today?Modern society has one crucial advantage that medieval Europe did not: science. Today, we can identify new viruses, sequence genomes, and develop diagnostic tests within weeks. But history cautions us against complacency. Epidemics are not new, and global movement will always carry risks. What matters most is how societies respond, through collaboration, sharing knowledge, and strengthening public health systems.Ultimately, the history of plague teaches us that epidemics, though devastating, also drive innovation, cooperation, and resilience. The same interconnectedness that spreads disease can also unite humanity in finding solutions.
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