Black Death comes to Oregon as man is infected with plague after he is bitten trying to pry a mouse from the jaws of a stray cat



A man in Oregon has been infected with the plague, the same disease that wiped out up to 60 percent of Europe in the Middle Ages.



He caught the rare, but deadly, strain of the bacteria after he was bitten on the hand trying to pry a dead mouse from the jaws of a stray neighborhood cat.

The man, whose name was not released, is currently fighting the most horrific form of the disease, septicemic plague, which can cause victims to bleed from the mouth, nose and rectum, according to health officials.

Critical care: The plague victim had to be transferred to the St Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon, after he initially went to a smaller regional hospital

The bacterium behind the plague that ravages Europe in the 14th century, Yersinia pestis, is still carried by fleas that infect animal across the world, mostly rats.



However, treatment with modern antibiotics can usually defeat the infection before it becomes deadly.



The latest victim, who is only the fifth case of plague in Oregon in 20 years, has already had two of the three types of plague infection, the Oregonian newspaper reports.



After he was bitten, the man, who is from rural Crook County in central Oregon, developed swollen lymph nodes, a sign of bubonic plague.



In the hospital, it developed into septicemic plague, infecting his bloodstream.



Deadly: In the 14th century, the plague killed up to 200 million people, mostly in western Europe

Carrier: The man caught the infection after he was bitten by a stray cat that was carrying a mouse in its mouth. Flees carry the disease

The third type of plague infection is pneumonic, which affects the lungs.

The man is currently undergoing intensive treatment at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, after he was transferred there from a smaller regional hospital.



Health officials say the have caught the cat that bit the man and are running tests to confirm that it was indeed the source of the plague infection.



In April the Food and Drug Administration approved Levaquin as both a vaccine and a treatment for the plague.



The federal government is likely to begin stockpiling the drug in the event of an outbreak of the disease.



A variation of the plague was responsible the Black Death, which wiped out up to 200 million people in Europe and parts of Asia.