Oregon Resident Diagnosed With The Plague Likely Got It From Their Cat

Officials say people in the community are not believed to be at risk for the bubonic plague.

Officials in central Oregon this week reported a case of bubonic plague in a resident who likely got the disease from a sick pet cat.

The infected resident, the cat, and the resident’s close contacts have all been provided medication, public health officials say, and people in the community are not believed to be at risk.

Plague isn’t common, but it also isn’t unheard of in the western United States, where a handful of cases occur every year. It’s different from Alaskapox, a rare, recently discovered disease that killed a man in Fairbanks, Alaska, last month.

Here are a few things to know about what the plague is, who is at risk and how a disease that was once a harbinger of death became a treatable illness.

What is plague?