Plague Found In Cat From Hart Flat

POSTED: 3:04 pm PST December 4, 2009
UPDATED: 3:42 pm PST December 4, 2009

HART FLAT, Ca. -- The Kern County Department of Public Health has confirmed a test result positive for Y. pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, conducted on a domesticated cat from Hart Flat, Calif.

A test on another cat in the same household is pending. The Vector Control Section of the California Department of Health Services and the Kern County Environmental Health, which is now part of Public Health, are collaborating to investigate these cases.

There is no evidence of human infection at this time, Kim Rodriguez with the KCDPH said.

Appropriate preventive steps including antibiotics have been recommended to protect those who may have been exposed to these cats. One of the symptomatic cats is responding well to antibiotics, but one of the cats has died, Rodriguez said.

“(The) plague is still very much present in our county, although we may want to believe that it is an obsolete disease of the past,â€