State health officials say a woman in Lake County has been diagnosed with blubonic plague. It is the 1st diagnosis of plague in Oregon in
15 years. The disease terrorized Europe's population more than 600 years ago, but the plague is treatable when caught early.
Dr. Emilio DeBess is the public health veterinarian and an epidemiologist with the Oregon Department of Human Services. He says the disease, once known as the Black Death, got somewhat of a bad rap after killing off 1/3rd of Europe's population in the 1300s.
But he says that thanks to scientific advances, "it's a very treatable condition with antibiotics, and so that's usually not a concern; back then, they didn't have antibiotics. We do have very good antibiotics that treat the infection."
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