Plague in affluent areas?

With the news that an Oregon man has been hospitalized with suspected  plague has come some news stories about how bubonic plague is now affecting more affluent areas.

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.

Whilst this may be true it should be noted that bubonic plague is a VERY rare disease in the United States these days with only about 11 cases a year on average. (For comparison 73 people are killed by lightning each year in the United States).

Still, you might want to be careful about extracting rodents from the mouths of stray cats...