New Mexico is reporting its first fatality from plague since 2020.
A man who was hospitalized with the disease died last week.
The man, who was not identified, lived in Lincoln County, located in the state's southeast region, reports the New Mexico Department of Health in a statement, reported ABC News.
Officials did not list the man's name, age, or ethnicity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, plague is treatable with antibiotics and has a high likelihood of full recovery if a patient obtains medical care early.
The New Mexico Department of Health said it is reaching out to the area's residents and will conduct an environmental assessment in the community.
The last human plague case in New Mexico was reported in 2021 in Torrance County, but in 2020, there were four cases, including the fatal case in Rio Arriba County. The other cases were in Santa Fe and Torrance counties.
State Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Erin Phipps told ABC News that plague, which killed millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages, has not yet been eradicated, and the bacteria that caused the Black Death is the same that causes modern cases of the disease.
The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which occurs naturally in rural and semi-rural parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, according to the CDC.
Typically, it affects wild rodents including rats, prairie dogs, or squirrels, but humans can end up with plague by being bitten by a rodent flea or by coming into direct contact with an infected animal, including house pets.
According to Phipps, two-thirds of the people who contracted plague did before there were antibiotics, but now, about 10% of people infected die from the disease.
Health officials recommend cleaning up places where rodents can live near homes, preventing pets from roaming and hunting, and having a sick pet examined by a veterinarian.
"People don't realize that [plague] is not a disease of the past," Phipps said. "We get cases in the western United States every year. We hope by increasing awareness, we can encourage early diagnosis."
The news from New Mexico comes a month after an Oregon resident contracted plague, most likely from the family cat.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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