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Dead chipmunk at Tahoe had bubonic plague

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) -- A dead chipmunk at Lake Tahoe has tested positive for bubonic plague. Authorities say it's important to alert area residents and visitors, but no reason for alarm.

Signs have been posted at area beaches, trailheads and campgrounds warning people to avoid the rodents.

The chipmunk was found last week near the Lake Tahoe Forest Service Visitors Center.

"This is a warning that there is some active plague in the area," said Virginia Huber, a manager at the El Dorado County Environmental Management in California.

"It's not rare at all," she told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Plague is endemic in rodent populations in the West and has infected chipmunks and squirrels in all of the counties across Nevada.

It's a potentially fatal disease that can be transferred to humans. Huber said the fleas jump from one warm body to the next.

The last death recorded in the area was in 1980 when a South Lake Tahoe woman contracted the disease from her cat, which had brought home a dead chipmunk.

Her death was the first case of plague pneumonia reported in the country since 1924, a California Department of Health Services report said.

Jim Hogan, supervisor for the Nevada Environmental Health Division, said that with today's modern medicine, the disease is not a death sentence.

"It can be fatal, yes, but its very curable if treated early," Hogan said.

Hogan said the disease can take two pathways through the body. The most common way is infecting the lymph nodes, called bubonic plague. If left untreated, the bacteria can travel through the blood stream to the lungs, progressing to the deadly pneumonic plague.

Early symptoms include high fever, chills, nausea, weakness and swollen glands. Health officials warn:

-- Do not feed or handle rodents.

-- Make sure your cat or dog has a flea collar.

-- Do not rest, camp or sleep near a rodent burrow.

-- Do not touch sick or dead animals.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001