China - Two People Contract Plague After Consuming Raw Rodent Parts

Too many people are tempted in being that Bizarre Foods guy....trying exotic food that locals claim is tasty, good for health, and so on. This story should be enough to make you give a second thought before tossing back those raw marmot kidneys. Two people from Inner Mongolia contracted yersinia pestis, the causative agent of the plague or 'Black Death' after consuming raw marmont (rodent) kidneys. From the article, "The couple ate the rodent's raw meat and kidney, which people in the area believe is good for health, a World Health Organization official told the BBC at the time."

The article below is actually about two others that were diagnosed with the pneumonic plague in Beijing. "Pneumonic plague is one of three forms of the infectious disease and the only one that can be transmitted from person to person by inhaling infected droplets – for example, spread when someone breathes in cough droplets from an infected person."  No flea needed.

From the CDC website - " Patients develop fever, headache, weakness, and a rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery mucous. Pneumonic plague may develop from inhaling infectious droplets or may develop from untreated bubonic or septicemic plague after the bacteria spread to the lungs. The pneumonia may cause respiratory failure and shock. Pneumonic plague is the most serious form of the disease and is the only form of plague that can be spread from person to person (by infectious droplets)."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/11/13/pneumonic-plague-tied-black-death-sickens-people-beijing-china/4176578002/
2 people in China infected with plague, the disease tied to Black Death
Ryan W. Miller
USA TODAY
11/13/19