Every so often an unfortunate story like this shows up.
A young person (usually out west) contracts a strange disease and becomes very ill or worse dies.  The diagnosis is made and it is the PLAGUE!!!! (RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!)
The media immediately picks up on the story and before you know, it's Plague hysteria everywhere.  Well I would like to calm some fears.
This story recently occurred.  An unfortunate 37 year old biologist from the Grand Canyon recently contracted and died from pulmonary (or lung) plague a few days after performing an autopsy on a mountain lion from the region.  This is tragic and my thoughts go out to the young man's family and friends, but this is a rare and a freak event.
Plague is caused by a bacteria that is found in many animal populations.  During the 1400s, crowded inner city populations in Europe and horrible public sanitation the bacteria was rapidly passed from rats to people by flea bites.  Because they had no antibiotics the illness killed nearly 25% of the worlds population at the time.  The Bubonic (or Black) Plague.
It often killed by blood infections and lead to large black lymph nodes or Bubos (thus the name.)  Rarely the bacteria can go airborne and cause a severe and almost always fatal pneumonia (which seems to have happened in our unfortunate biologist in Arizona.)
But the fact is that Yersinia pestis (the dubious bacteria) is sensitive to simple penicillin.
It is treatable (most of the time.)

So please.... it is an interesting and historical illness but NOT something for people to get worked up about.  If you want to worry... worry about cervical cancer, diabetes, and malaria.  Those diseases cause much more death and illness and we can do something about it.

Plague Suspected In Death Of Man In Arizona