by Officials in Coconino County, Arizona, said Friday that a citizen had died from pneumonic plague, the first such death in the county in nearly 20 years.
Northern Arizona Healthcare, the hospital’s operator, said in a statement on Friday that the resident visited Flagstaff Medical Center lately and passed on the same day in spite of efforts to perform life-saving CPR.
The patient had Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes pneumonic plague, which manifests as a severe lung infection, according to quick diagnostic testing.
According to a statement from the county, it was the first pneumonic plague fatality in Coconino County, north of Phoenix, since 2007.
The patient’s date of death and other case-related information were not made public.
According to officials, there is still little chance of contracting the plague. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, human incidences of the disease are uncommon.
According to the EPA, plague naturally spreads among rodent populations in the western United States.
Large portions of Europe’s population perished in the terrible epidemic that swept the continent in the 1340s.
Before spreading throughout Eurasia, the pandemic started in an older village in what is now Kyrgyzstan.
Because of the black blotches that developed on the bodies of those who contracted Yersinia pestis from fleas that fed on rodents, the outbreak was dubbed the “Black Death.”
Officials in Arizona said that the 2007 fatality occurred as a result of the individual coming into contact with a dead animal that had the plague. According to the C.D.C., humans typically contract the disease by handling an infected animal or by being bitten by an infected rodent flea.
The FDA estimates that seven cases of human plague are recorded annually in the United States.
Fever, headache, and fast progressing pneumonia, accompanied by coughing, chest pain, and shortness of breath, are signs of pneumonic plague. After exposure, symptoms appear one to eight days later.
According to the C.D.C., antibiotics can cure the plague, but the medication must be administered promptly.
The National Institutes of Health states that there is little chance of the plague spreading from person to person and that the last recorded instance occurred in Los Angeles in 1924.
The West Nile virus, hantavirus, and rabies are among the several illnesses that are endemic to the southwestern United States, including plague.
Actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, passed away from hantavirus in New Mexico this year, most likely as a result of interacting with infected rodents.
