It's really odd to be reading this in the year 2012: "...homeowners in these newly developed areas should be educated about the risks of plague." I had no idea that people came down with plague here in the States in the 21st century but they do - an average of 11 case per year.
Although many cases were in areas where the habitat supports rodents and fleas, the researchers also found cases occurring in more upper-class neighborhoods. In the 1980s, most cases occurred where housing conditions were poor, but more recently cases have been reported in affluent areas of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the investigators found.
Schotthoefer noted that these more affluent areas where plague occurred were regions where new housing developments had been built in habitats that support the wild reservoirs of plague, which include ground squirrels and woodrats.
The question is why do most of those cases appear in New Mexico? Are they turning wilderness areas into subdivisions at a higher rate than other states?
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