Patient with the plague in Oregon

Question

Somebody in Central Oregon was treated with the plague?

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR35BUf7/

Comments

Yes, this claim is true, Deschutes County Health Services has verified a case of human plague. According to information provided on the official Deschutes County website, the individual   contracted the infection from their symptomatic pet cat. Fortunately, prompt identification has mitigated community risk. Notably, the previous instance of plague in the area was documented in 2015.


https://www.deschutescounty.gov/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

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This claim is true. There has been one person who contracted the disease through a house cat, and this incident did happen in Oregon. According to the Deschutes County Health Service, they verified that it is not a widespread risk and was quickly contained, ensuring it poses no further concern to the general public. Additionally, an NPR article backs up this information, confirming its accuracy while emphasizing that it is not considered a significant threat.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/02/14/1231215446/so-you-think-you-know-all-about-the-plague

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Yes, this information is accurate. Deschutes Country confirmed that one resident was by their infected pet cat.  “All close contacts of the resident and their pet have been contacted and provided medication to prevent illness,” said Dr. Richard Fawcett, Deschutes County Health Officer.

https://www.deschutes.org/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

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Yes, this claim is true since there is evidence from the CDC that someone from central Oregon contracted the bubonic plague. They were infected by their house cat who has since then passed away but the human is being treated and is now on the mend.

https://www.deschutes.org/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

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Your fact check was short and informative. You let us know the facts and the information that was needed. I appreciate you including the information about the last recorded case of the plaque as well.

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Good response. Your fact check was informative, and I feel I can believe and understand the initial claim better. The information you included was very helpful.

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I think your comment was very insightful because you did also include a detail where it's not something that everyone should be worried about like the Tik Tok where it could harm people into thinking they are at a huge amount of risk.

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I thought you did a good job with this claim! The only thing I would say is to add more background information about the source. Adding a quote is good, but I would explain the source a little more.

Answer 1

This claim is true in the sense that a case of the bubonic plague was reported to take place in Central Oregon. The Deschutes county have reported that a case of the bubonic plague happened and was due to a pet cat. What happened was a person had caught the bubonic plague from their pet cat. The person and their cat were both treated with medication for the plague and unfortunately the cat has been reported to have died. According to the CDC, seven cases of the human plague are reported to happen every year. Due to the advancement in the medical field these cases do not pose any issues for the future. As to the original post of this information, the creator provided this information in a satirical, exaggerated, and/or comical way.

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/plague/index.html

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/oregon-health-officials-confirm-case-of-bubonic-plague/283-28e0db6e-d751-47b3-849d-c587be0e55c4

https://www.deschutes.org/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

Answer 2

This claim is true. The Deschutes County Health Services has confirmed a case of the plague from a local resident. The individual was likely infected by their pet cat. 

The plague isn't incredibly common, but it does have a handful of cases occur every year. In Oregon, the last case was reported in 2015. It's a serious disease that can be fatal if left untreated, but there is proper treatment that can clear up the infection.

https://apnews.com/us-news/plague-oregon-general-news-6d5a71b8a45e5e38ec321fd48fdb9576

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/13/an-oregon-resident-was-diagnosed-with-the-plague-here-are-a-few-things-to-know-about-the-illness/

https://www.deschutescounty.gov/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

Answer 3

This claim is true. According to AP news on Feb 7th "Officials in central Oregon this week reported a case of bubonic plague in a resident who likely got the disease from a sick pet cat." The Plague is an infectious disease that can affect mammals. The bacteria carried by rodents and fleas called Yersinia pestis is what causes the disease. The infected resident and close contacts have been made aware and provided with medication. 

In an article by USA Today, officials confirm there is little risk to the community. Many people are afraid of the disease because it wiped out at least a third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages, "but officials said there is no cause for concern today." The case of plague is not extremely uncommon, but it is also very unlikely "usually somewhere between five and 10 cases a year reported in the United States, "So while this claim is true, with little following information it can definitely be taken the wrong way.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/02/16/bubonic-plague-oregon-confirmed-what-to-know/72627028007/

https://apnews.com/us-news/plague-oregon-general-news-6d5a71b8a45e5e38ec321fd48fdb9576 

Answer 4

The claim posted on Tiktok that there is a “Patient with the Plague in Oregon” is true. This claim can be proved true through evidence posted by the Deschutes County Health Services, sited below, confirming a case of human plague. The "Deschutes County Health Services has confirmed a case of human plague in a local resident" on February 7th 2024, according to their website. The last reported case of the plague in Oregon was back in 2015(CDC). While the claim comes from a Tiktok post of an account by the username “@dailyfishtoknew”, which I'm typically very wary of, upon further personal research I was able to confirm this claim true. @Dailyfishtoknews has a strong following of over 180 thousand people, but they rarely credit where their information is from and the rest of their posts should be consumed with discernment. Website postings confirmed the infected person in Oregon was treated, and that according to health officials there is "little risk to the community" that the disease will spread. The plague is extremely rare to catch these days and much more treatable, but according to the CDC, an average of seven plague cases are reported a year. The case reported recently in Oregon is thought to have been caused by the person's symptomatic cat. The doctor who treated the patient, Dr. Richard Fawcett, confirmed that all close contacts of the resident and their cat have been informed and provided medication, luckily this case was caught very early. 

Sources:

https://www.deschutescounty.gov/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

https://www.cdc.gov/plague/index.html

Answer 5

This claim is true. First I found this being reported on AP News, a large and widely trusted site. Then to get more local details I looked up Deschutes county website and went to the "news" section to confirm that the individual was infected by their cat on February 7th, 2024. The county website also stated that all who were in close contact had been given medication and since it was caught early on, it poses little risk to the community.

Sources:

https://www.deschutes.org/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

https://apnews.com/us-news/plague-oregon-general-news-6d5a71b8a45e5e38ec321fd48fdb9576

Comments

Great fact check! I appreciate how straightforward your answer is but you also still included a lot of information for you to come to that conclusion. I also like how you included that you knew you could trust AP news and did the research to know how reliable of a source AP news is. The information about the people the patient was around were all treated and people should not be too concerned about the risk.

Answer 6

This claim is true. The disease was contracted from a cat. However, the case was treatable. The community is also not believed to be at risk.

The CDC provides a list of symptoms as well as what to do if you believe you have contracted the virus.

https://www.cdc.gov/plague/index.html

Comments

I agree with your conclusion that this claim is true. However, you should include how you came to that conclusion. I appreciate the CDC's information about how to treat the plague and its symptoms. Overall, I think you should work on describing your process and coming to your conclusion that the claim is true.

Answer 7

Yes, this is true. In my research, I found an article from New York Times among many articles on this news. I chose The New York Times article because their reliable and bias score from AD Fontes media looks trustworthy. The article talks about how it is possible for you to get bubonic plague from cats. In this article, I found a link to where that writer got their source of information. From the Deschutes County page article "Deschutes County confirms case of human plague in local resident" published February 7th, 2024. This article reveals that the "Deschutes County Health Services have confirmed a case of human plague in a local resident" and the patient was "likely infected by their symptomatic pet cat."

https://www.deschutescounty.gov/health/page/deschutes-county-confirms-case-human-plague-local-resident

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/health/plague-cats-oregon.html

Answer 8

This claim is true. According to AP News, the patient caught the bubonic plague from his sick cat. The article goes on to state that there is an average of seven cases of the plague per year in the country. All strains of the plague are now treatable with antibiotics.

https://apnews.com/us-news/plague-oregon-general-news-6d5a71b8a45e5e38ec321fd48fdb9576

Answer 9

Yes this is true. A resident in Central Oregon contracted the plague through a sick pet cat according to officials. While this does seem alarming at first, thanks to modern medicine the disease is no where near as deadly or life threatening as it used to be. In an article published by Oregon Public Broadcasting, it was reported that "the infected resident, the cat, and the resident's close contacts have all been provided medication, public health officials say, and people in the community are not believed to be at risk." 

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/13/an-oregon-resident-was-diagnosed-with-the-plague-here-are-a-few-things-to-know-about-the-illness/ 

Answer 10

This claim seems to be true. After reviewing the TikTok video, I began searching upstream to see if there were any news stations or articles that had discussed this topic. The first article that popped up came from AP News, which not only discussed the Oregon resident's diagnosis of the plague but also went into great detail explaining the illness and signs to watch out for. In the article, Rebecca Boone states that "the infected resident and the resident's close contacts have all been provided medication, public health officials say, and people in the community are not believed to be at risk. The cat was also treated but did not survive." 

AP News Article: https://apnews.com/us-news/plague-oregon-general-news-6d5a71b8a45e5e38ec321fd48fdb9576