(NewsNation) — A resident in northern Arizona has died from the pneumonic plague, the first person to be killed by the infection in the area since 2007.
The unidentified patient went to the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department for help and died the same day despite doctors’ efforts to save them, Northern Arizona Healthcare said.
Tests results confirmed on Friday that the patient died from pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, Coconino County Health and Human Services said.
Yersinia pestis can be transmitted to animals through bites from infected fleas. Humans can catch the disease if they’re bitten by an infected flea or come in contact with an infected animal, according to CCHHS.
The severe lung infection can also occur when a person inhales infectious droplets coughed into the air from an infected animal or person, per the CDC.
Health officials stressed that the plague is rare in humans and said there are an average of seven human plague cases reported each year in the United States.
The last reported human-to-human transmission was in 1924, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Unlike the bubonic and septicemic plagues, the pneumonic plague occurs in the lungs and does not cause the skin to turn black, blue or swell in the form of lymph nodes.
However, it is the most serious form of the disease and the only form of plague that can be spread from person to person, the CDC
The CDC says symptoms can include fever, headache, rapid onset of pneumonia, chest pain, bloody mucus and weakness.