No Panic Over Bubonic Plague Find

County officials say a rat found carrying bubonic plague in the city of Orange does not signal a threat to public health--but they are taking precautions all the same.

No other incidents have been reported since the rat was caught and tested in mid-August, according to Orange County Health Care Agency officials.

“We don’t think it is a significant danger because we are on top of it,” said James Webb, technical director for the vector-control district of the Health Care Agency.

Nevertheless, health officials take seriously the bubonic plague, which can be transmitted to people through flea bites or even the sneezes of pet cats. County workers are trapping rats, dusting areas where they are found with insecticide to reduce fleas and testing stray dogs and cats.

Since August, they have caught 28 rats and a number of ground squirrels in the area southeast of the Riverside and Costa Mesa freeways--where the infected rat was found--and all have tested negative, Webb said.

“There does not appear to be a public-health problem,” said County Health Director Dr. Hugh F. Stallworth.

County health officials, concerned about possible hysteria, have been torn over making an announcement about the discovery.

“No one has gotten sick and there have been no animal die-offs, so circumstances seem to indicate it is not a big problem” for humans or animals, county epidemiologist Dr. Hildy Meyers said.

Plague, caused by bacteria, can be fatal in humans and was a scourge in the Middle Ages. Today it is successfully treated with antibiotics, and no one has contracted bubonic plague in the county in at least 20 years, Meyers said.

Bubonic plague is endemic among wild rodents--most often ground squirrels and wood rats--in California and the West.

The rat caught in Orange, however, was a roof rat. It did not carry the kind of flea that transmits the disease, Webb said, and that flea has not been found with any frequency in the county in years.

“That reduces its likelihood as a vector to humans,” Webb said.

A more likely source of human contamination would be from a domestic cat, which could catch the disease either through contact with an infected rat or fleas. Cats can develop the disease in their lungs and transmit it through sneezes, said Webb, who holds a doctorate in medical parasitology.

State health officials said Orange County is taking the necessary steps.

“I think it is an anomaly,” said Vicki Kramer, chief of vector-borne disease section of the state Department of Health Services. “I think there is no health threat at this time.”