Colorado resident is 2nd to die of plague there this year

The Pueblo City-County Health Department has confirmed the death of an adult due to the plague.

Keep pets from roaming or hunting out in the open, and use flea control products, the Pueblo County Health Department recommends. They have now collected specimens of fleas and dead animals in the area which will then be tested for plague infection.

The plague outbreak last year, which afflicted four people, was caused by a pit bull, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released April 30. According to Colorado’s Tri-County Health Department, the case said they could only find one other case of dog-to-human transmission in records, a 2009 case in China.

The victim, who has yet to be identified, likely contracted the disease from fleas on a dead or dying animal, officials say.

The CDC says about seven people get the plague – over 80% of which have been in the bubonic form – every year in the United States.

“This highlights the importance to protect yourself and your pets from the exposure of fleas that carry plague”, said Sylvia Proud, the city-county public health director.

Plague occurs naturally in Colorado and is an infectious disease that spreads when infected fleas bite wild rodents or other small mammals such as rock squirrels, wood rats, ground squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, prairie dogs, and rabbits. This case, however, is the very first plague case since 1993 in Boulder County.

Common symptoms include: high fever, weakness, chills, fatigue, muscle aches and even severe confusion.

Called Yersinia pestis, plague is transmitted from rodent to rodent by infected fleas.

The latest case is also believed to have been the same type.

“The amount of human infections is quite low”, Esper said. Humans can become infected after they are bitten by an animal carrying the bacterium or by handling an infected animal.

The third and least common type is pneumatic plague, which involves pneumonia and is capable of spreading among people through coughing. The disease causes major damage to the skin and nerves, but if treated promptly, it’s not life-threatening, according to the Florida Department of Health.