Girl, 7, catches the PLAGUE from fleas on dead squirrel
She had a high heart rate and low blood pressure,’ Dr Snow said. ‘It all originally pointed to signs of what’s called septic shock ‘She originally presented with a temperature of 107 degrees,’
A seven-year-old Colorado girl has been diagnosed with bubonic plague, in state’s first case of the archaic illness since 2006.
Doctors believe Sierra Jane Downing contracted the disease, also known as the ‘black death’, from a dead squirrel while camping with her family in Pagosa Springs. Fleas are common transmitters of the plague.
The girl’s parents rushed her to the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children a week ago and from there she was flown by helicopter to Presbyterian St Luke’s Medical Center in Denver, running a high fever.
‘She originally presented with a temperature of 107 degrees,’ Dr Wendi Drummond told 9 News. ‘She had also had a seizure.’
Dr Drummond along with colleague Dr Jennifer Snow diagnosed Sierra with the rare condition, which killed some 25 million people when it swept through Europe in the 14th century.
‘She had a high heart rate and low blood pressure,’ Dr Snow said. ‘It all originally pointed to signs of what’s called septic shock.’
Neither woman had seen a case of the plague before but the more they investigated, the more they began to suspect that it was what Sierra had contracted.
‘You learn about it in medical school during microbiology, but I had never seen a case of it before,’ Dr Snow said, who quickly administered the antibiotic gentamicin.
After two days where her condition continued to go downhill, Sierra turned a corner and on Monday she left the pediatric ICU.
The plague hasn’t been recorded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment since 2006 and only a handful of cases are reported each year across the whole of the United States.
Without treatment the plague kills around two thirds of infected humans within four days.
‘It’s one of those things that you don’t necessarily expect to see,’ Dr Drummond said. ‘But, it’s definitely one of those things you don’t want to miss.’