Arizona Resident Dies From Plague, Officials Say
The resident went to Flagstaff Medical Center recently and died the same day despite attempts to provide 'lifesaving resuscitation,' according to a statement on Friday from Northern Arizona Healthcare, which runs the hospital.
Rapid diagnostic testing confirmed that the patient was infected with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the pneumonic plague, which appears as a severe lung infection.
It was the first recorded death from the pneumonic plague in Coconino County, which is north of Phoenix, since 2007, county officials said in a statement.
Additional details about the case, including when the patient died, were not released.
The risk of exposure to the plague remains low, officials said. It's rare for cases of the disease to appear in humans, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Plague occurs naturally in the western United States and circulates among the rodent populations there, the agency said.
The plague infamously struck Europe in the 1340s, killing large parts of the continent's population.
The outbreak began in a trader settlement in what is now Kyrgyzstan before spreading across Eurasia.
The outbreak was known as the Black Death, for the black spots that appeared on the bodies of the sick, who were infected with Yersinia pestis after being bitten by fleas that lived on rodents.
According to Arizona officials, the 2007 death happened after the person came into contact with a dead animal infected with plague. Humans are usually infected through the bite of an infected rodent flea or by handling an infected animal, the C.D.C. said.
An average of seven human plague cases are reported each year in the United States, according to the agency.
Pneumonic plague symptoms include fever, headache and rapidly developing pneumonia, with shortness of breath, chest pain and coughing. Symptoms develop within one to eight days of exposure.
Plague can be cured through antibiotics, but the treatment must be given quickly, according to the C.D.C.
The risk of human-to-human transmission of the plague is low and the last known case happened in 1924 in Los Angeles, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Plague is one of many diseases endemic to the southwestern United States, including West Nile virus, hantavirus and rabies.
In New Mexico, Betsy Arakawa, the wife of the actor Gene Hackman, died from hantavirus this year, most likely after coming into contact with infected rodents.
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