On Thursday, August 27, state health officials announced that an elderly Utah resident died from the plague earlier this month. This is the first case of plague in the state of Utah since 2009. The Utah Department of Health keeps the identity of the patient undisclosed, but they declared that the person might have contracted the disease from contact with a dead animal or for a flea.
The department of health declared in a statement that "the investigation continues" and that they believe that the person contracted the disease locally in Utah, since they don't have data sustaining the hypothesis the person had traveled anywhere else where the plague is common.
According to scientists, the bacterium that causes plague occurs naturally in the western United States. According to previous reports, the epidemic of plague that is spreading in the country originated in the Yosemite National Park, in California. In Utah's, the plague is typically seen in prairie dog population every year, according to the scientists. Other species of animals living in the wild are also susceptible, especially rabbits, squirrels and ferrets.
The reports inform that up to date four people have died out of the dozen cases of human plague occurring across seven states since April 1. According to the department of health, from the dozen cases, four occurred in Colorado, two each in Arizona and New Mexico and Arizona, and one each in Oregon, Utah, Oregon, Georgia and California.
The plague cases that occurred earlier in California and Georgia and California were linked to exposures at or near Yosemite National Park. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the plague was introduced to the U.S. in 1900 by rat-infested steamships sailing from affected areas in the world, but mostly in Asia. A report this week declares that it is still unclear why the number of U.S. infections this year is higher than the average that has been experienced in recent decades.
Those infected usually develop symptoms between two and six days after exposure. Among the common symptoms of plague are included generally feeling sick, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and a sudden fever. If patients are treated with antibiotics the prognosis is good, with the condition that they are diagnosed and treated early.
