Laboratory tests have confirmed that the patient had died of pneumonic plague, a serious pulmonary infection caused by Yersinia Pestis Bacteria, said health officials of Coconino County in a statement. Out of respect for the family, no additional details on the circumstances is published.
Sharon Dewitte, PHD, professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder who studied pneumonic plague, says that plague cases are rare and that deaths are even rarer, but these infections occur from time to time and can quickly become fatal when patients do not obtain rapid treatment with antibiotics.
“Although recent death in Arizona is heartbreaking, it is not necessarily surprising, since there are deaths by plague in the United States, and especially since the person had the pneumonic form of the disease,” said Dr. Dewitte.
What is the plague?
The plague is a disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis This can infect humans and mammals. The chips carry plague and the disease takes place naturally through populations of wild rodents.
What are the symptoms of the plague?
Bubonic plague: Current symptoms are fever, headache, chills, weakness and one or more painful lymph nodes (called bubbles). Without antibiotics, bacteria can spread to other parts of the body.
Septicemic plague: Symptoms include fever, chills, extreme weakness, abdominal pain and shock. The skin and other fabrics can become black and die, especially on the fingers, toes and the nose. This type of plague can develop alone or from untreated bubonic plague.
Pneumonic Plague: Typical symptoms are fever, headache, weakness, shortness of breath, chest pain, cough and sometimes bloody or aqueous mucous membranes. This type of plague can develop from untreated septicemic or bubonic plague, or when a person inhales infectious droplets notched by a person or a plague animal. It is the most serious form, and it is the only type that can spread from one person to another.
What makes the pneumonic plague so bad?
“The pneumonic plague is much more serious, because once the plague entered your lungs, the decline of vital functions is rushed – there is a shorter opportunity window to make effective interventions,” explains Monica Green, PHD, independent researcher.
“In addition, the pneumonic plague is immediately transmitted to those near the patient, and will also be fatal with all these individuals,” explains Dr. Green. “This is why, from our historic files, we very often see whole households succumb to the tour in a very short time.”
What distinguishes the case of the current plague of the plague known as black death, which has swept several continents in the Middle Ages, is that the conditions today are less conducive to the spread of this disease – and today we have antibiotics which can treat it, says Green.
How to reduce your risk of plague
- To the rodent test of your house: Make sure rodents cannot enter your home. Erase your courtyard with brush, rocks, waste, firewood and animal food that could attract rodents.
- Wear an insectifuge: Apply products containing deet to the skin and clothing when you are outside with potential exposure to fleas.
- Give necklaces to pet fleas: Use necklaces or other flea control products to protect pets from flea bites that could cause a plague infection.
- Keep the pets out of your bed: If your pets wander free outside in the areas where the plague has been reported, do not let them sleep in your bed.
“The plague persists in the populations of wild animals in the West and in the Southwest, and humans are accidental victims of this disease, for which these animals are the main natural hosts,” explains Dewitte. Prairie dogs and land squirrels in the western United States are common carriers of the plague, adds Dewitte.
She says that people who live or visit the Western and Southwest United States, where these animals live, should always take precautions against plague.
