GAH

A forest was evacuated after a squirrel infected with the plague was found.

Routine tests revealed it was carrying the disease known as the Black Death and visitors were ordered to leave Los Angeles National Forest. Bubonic plague killed an estimated 75 to 200 million people across Europe in the Middle Ages. The infection ? carried by fleas living on small rodents such as rats ? is deadly in humans unless treated swiftly with antibiotics.

Officials in LA say no humans are believed to be infected but closed parts of the forest as a precaution.

However, don't panic. Last year, a 7-year-old girl in Colorado contracted the plague after coming into contact with a dead squirrel, and a 59-year-old Oregon man caught the disease as he attempted to remove a dead mouse from his cat's throat. Both survived (not sure about the cat), though the man lost his fingers and toes to infection. There are regular cases of bubonic plague that spring up every year in the American southwest. Occasionally, they lead to deaths.