2nd Colorado Plague Death in 2015

The Pueblo City-County Health Department released a statement confirming the county’s first case of plague since 2004 and expressing condolences to the victim’s family.

The health official also explained that the recovering man was misdiagnosed from another state’s ER, but returned to Colorado for correct diagnosis.

The unidentified adult from Pueblo County likely died of the relatively rare septicemic form of the disease, said Christine Nevin-Woods, the medical officer for the Pueblo City-County Health Department.

This is the second plague death reported in Colorado in 2015.

An investigation is continuing, and Pueblo County residents are being urged to report any unusual instances of rabbits and prairie dogs “dying off”.

In June, a 16-year-old boy died in Larimer County, Colorado, in that county’s first confirmed plague case since 1999.

The dog-to-human transmission was unexpected, according to Colorado’s Tri-County Health Department.

Plague is transmitted from rodent to rodent by infected fleas.

According to the CDC, only about seven people are infected by the plague each year, with over 80 percent from the bubonic form of the disease, in which the infection spreads through the body’s tissue into the lymphatic system, producing swelling. Because the rodents carrying the fleas often die from the infection, the fleas seek new hosts, raising the risk to human populations. In septicemic plague, the bacteria directly enters the blood stream and, without the swelling, its symptoms of fever, chills and abdominal pain, can look like the flu. Antibiotics can treat the disease if it’s caught early, but untreated cases can cause serious illness or death. Meanwhile, she warns people to protect themselves, such wearing bug repellent, wearing gloves, long sleeves, and using long-handled shovels in removing dead rodents.