Nine African countries have issued travel alerts worried about the risk of the new Black Plague epidemic...after the pneumonic plague has infected more than one-thousand people.
Texas Health and Human Services' Chris Van Deusen said the bubonic plague is endemic in the southwestern part of the county, which includes West Texas because of prairie dogs and dry weather.
“If you’re bitten by a flea that’s carrying the bacteria, then you usually get the bubonic type of the disease which affects the skin. If you breath in the bacteria in some way, the pneumonic kind can [spread] because people can cough and expel the bacteria that way,” said Van Deusen.
He says the plagues rarely happen here. Health experts are worried about the pneumonic plague becoming a pandemic.
After more than 100 people die from a new Black Plague, one of Madagascar's biggest airlines banned flying. African airports are screening passengers. Schools and businesses have been closed. Large public gatherings have been cancelled. Van Deusen said it’s rare to get the plague here.