Plague found in cats raises concern

Wednesday, June 27, 2001 | 9:47 a.m.

Two feral cats in the Mount Charleston area have tested positive for the plague, and Clark County health officials advise residents to avoid contact with rodents and wild animals.

The plague is a rare bacterial illness that can be transmitted to humans through the bite of infected fleas, by direct contact with an infected animal or by inhaling the sick animal's respiratory droplets.

About 14 percent of all plague cases in the United States are fatal. The remainder are treated successfully with antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Clark County has never had a reported case of human plague, and the chances of the disease being spread to people are slim, said Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the Clark County Health District. Five cases of human plague have been recorded in Nevada since 1978, the most recent in 1992 in Wellington, near Carson City. Of those five cases, two people died.

"We aren't trying to scare people, we just want them to take some extra precautions," Sizemore said.

The cats have been euthanized, Sizemore said.

The disease can take several forms, with bubonic plague, which is transmitted through flea bites, being the most common. Symptoms, which can include swollen glands, fever, chills and extreme fatigue, usually begin two to six days after infection.

The cats were diagnosed with pneumonic plague, an airborne form of the disease considered fatal in 95 percent of human cases when left untreated, according to the CDC. The latest reported outbreak of pneumonic plague, in India in 1994, claimed 1,000 lives.

Lon Empey, environmental health supervisor for the county, said it is unusual for cats to test positive for the plague. Four gray foxes in the area tested positive for the plague last year, but they are categorized as "sentinel animals" -- they don't get sick from the disease and can't transmit it to humans.

Cats, however, do get sick from the plague and can spread the disease, Empey said. And finding the plague in the felines raises the level of concern, Empey said.

People are more likely to come into contact with cats than wild rodents, either directly or via their own household pets, Empey said. If an ailing cat sneezes, the plague can be spread by the respiratory droplets, Empey said.

People should not feed or handle feral cats and keep their own pets indoors, Empey said. Sick or dead animals should be reported to rangers at Mount Charleston or to officials with the health district.

Other preventive guidelines include eliminating nesting places for rodents around homes and offices and wearing insect repellant during outdoor activities to ward off flea bites. Household pets should also be protected with flea and tick collars or treatments.

Nevada's dry climate and lack of vegetation keeps the state's flea population at a minimum compared to other areas of the country, said Judith Ruiz, president of the Las Vegas Valley Humane Society. The exceptions are wooded areas, such as Mount Charleston, and places with the moisture fleas need to survive.

"The fleas were a nonissue when we moved here in 1986," Ruiz said. "But with so many golf courses being built and all the new development, we're seeing more of them."

During medieval times an outbreak of bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, spread rapidly throughout Europe and claimed 25 million lives. The most recent worldwide epidemic of the plague started in China in the early 1890s and made its way to San Francisco six years later, killing 12 million people worldwide.

The United States had about 15 cases of human plague in 2000, and the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 cases worldwide every year.