Los Angeles (USA), Jul 11 (EFE) .- Arizona’s health authorities investigate a bubonic plague case in which a resident died from the disease, which marks the first deadly case in humans in the United States this year.
Patrice Horstman, president of the Board of Supervisors of Coconino County, in northern Arizona, reported the death and explained that out of respect for the victim’s family, no additional information will be disclosed.
Local authorities did not specify where the victim could have contracted the disease.
The pest cases in humans are considered rare; The centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) report only a few per year.
There is no vaccine against this disease, which can be deadly if it is not treated in time, since the bacteria caused by the plague can infect the lungs (pneumonic plague) or blood.
The southwest states of the US concentrate most cases, because rodents and fleas are bearers of the bacteria, which can be transmitted to humans.
However, the health authorities of the Coconino County affirmed that the risk of transmission from person to person is very low, and that the last case of transmission between humans reported in the US dates back to 1924.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depending on the country and other factors, from 30 % to 60 % of bubonic plague infected dies.
Symptoms can develop after an incubation period that lasts between one day and a week, according to WHO. These symptoms are sudden fever and chilling, intense headache, muscle pains, nausea and vomiting, as well as inflammation of lymph nodes, called bubones, which give name to the most common form of this disease.
Bubonic plague or black death caused about 50 million deaths in Europe in the fourteenth century, with subsequent epidemics in China and India.
At present, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Peru are the three countries with the highest incidence of endemic bubonic plague, according to WHO.
(C) EFE Agency