So… You Thought The Bubonic Plague Was Over???

An Oregon resident has been diagnosed with a rare case of bubonic plague – which health officials believe he caught from his cat.

That’s the word from Deschutes County Health Officer Dr. Richard Fawcett, who says the unidentified man could have caught it from his cat through a flea that bit the cat and then bit him. Although both the man and his pet have been treated, the illness has since claimed the cat’s life. No other cases have been found in the state, Fawcett says.

Cases of the plague are rare in the U.S., which sees an average of seven per year – and 20 percent of those aren’t even bubonic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.