Spotting the world plagued areas, World Distribution of Plague map, 1998, released by the US Centers for Combating Diseases (CDC), showed that Libya reported cases in humans and animals. The map, released on the center's website confirms that Egypt is completely free from the plague, whereas plagued animal cases are witnessed in Saudi Arabia. The areas, marked in yellow, on the map, refer to the human plague cases between 1970 and 1998 including Libya. However, the red color marks the regions where plagues occur in animals including a spot in central Libya and another in west Saudi Arabia. The US website explains that this infections plague is caused by a bacterium known as Yersinia pestis. This bacterium causes both bubonic plague and the dreaded Black Death, which is spread among humans when they are bitten by an infected flea (the fleas which live on infected rodents) or by handling an infected animal. US experts declared that human plague, currently, occurs in the United States, reporting separate cases with an average of 10 to 15 cases each year. Globally, the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague each year. As for prevention, the website points out that plagues will probably continue to exist in its many localized geographic areas around the world, and plague outbreaks in wild rodent hosts will continue to occur. Attempts to eliminate wild rodent plagues are costly and futile. Therefore, primary preventive measures are directed toward reducing the threat of infection in humans in high risk areas through two techniques: the first one is environmental management, by controlling rat populations in both urban and rural areas. The second one is public health education, by eliminating food and shelter for rodents in and around homes, work places, and recreation areas, in addition to using appropriate and licensed insecticides to kill fleas during wild animal plague outbreaks to reduce the risk to humans.
