The Plague, seriously

What's worse: getting the bubonic plague or ebola?

 

Both are bad. You should get immunised against them before you travel to those countries.
It's a rule of thumb that happens in my family who like to travel overseas to visit my brother and his family. Get vaccinated before traveling over there.

 

I lived in Northern Colorado for more than 38 years. There were had constant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague constantly. It is present in the prairie dog colonies through out Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and even New Mexico. It is transferred by the fleas on the prairie dogs, which sort of resemble ground hogs. I have known of cases where a house cat got out of the home and into a prairie dog field and picked up the plague. I know of cases where a wild bob-cat got it and later transferred the plague to the veterinary doctor. There are about four cases each year in Colorado. If not treated in tine, the victim could died in a few days from the severe fever. The locals in Colorado know of the presence of the disease when an entire prairie dog colony dies off. At that point they spray the field to kill off the remaining infected fleas.

 

I remember the Four Corners hantavirus outbreak back in 1993 which brought attention to your state and the region.

 

Me too. I know several people down in Cortez and Durango. I had a Ute friend who operated a donated toys & clothes charity in Fort Collins and then drove them down to the Southern Ute Reservation.

 

The irony is I was stationed in Arkansas in a non-deployable unit. Granted we were Airborne Infantry, but we had a permanent training mission as part of TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command). All the combat deployable units were part of FORSCOM (Forces Command).

Yellow Fever vaccinations made me incredibly sick. Yellow Fever vaccines actually have live cultures in them. I was so sick I wanted to die. It was horrible. I found out later that year I have an auto-immune disorder which is why they think it made me so sick.

 

Sounds more like you experienced stage 1 symptoms of yellow fever, followed by stage 2 remission, and the autoimmune disorder was superfluous and had nothing what so ever to do with your sickness.

 

You should have gotten them before being stationed where you were.