Make sure you get your shots.

• Rare bubonic plague case reported in Los Angeles.
  

  A case of bubonic plague has been reported in the second largest US city of Los Angeles for the first time in 22 years, health officials said.
  
  An unidentified woman came down last week with symptoms of the disease, known as the Black Death when it devastatingly swept across Europe in the 14th century.
  
  Health officials said they believed the infected woman, who remains hospitalised, was exposed to fleas in the area around her house and stressed that the likelihood of a spread of the rare disease was very unlikely.



• Mumps Hits Midwest.
  

  In the worst outbreak in nearly 20 years, mumps cases are spilling out of Iowa, popping up in at least seven other Midwestern states and perhaps seven more — leading to promises of extra vaccine from the U.S. stockpile.
  
  There are no deaths and few hospitalizations being reported from the disease, which health officials say might have been helped by air travel.
  
  But the nation's federal health agency said Wednesday it's the largest outbreak in almost two decades with more than 1,000 cases and it's expected to keep growing.
  
  Mumps is a virus spread by coughing and sneezing. The most common symptoms are fever, headache and swollen salivary glands under the jaw. But it can lead to more severe problems, such as hearing loss, meningitis and fertility-diminishing swollen testicles.

Definitely a week of Gonads and Strife. Damn squirrels.