The CDPH said they are still working to find the source of the child’s infection.
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No other member of the child’s camping party became ill, health officials said. “We might never be able to determine where the child contracted plague”, a Danielle Buttke, a public health officer with the National Park Service told the O.C. Register.
“Cases of plague in California are very rare”, said Vicki Kramer, chief of the vector-borne disease section of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).
Officials urged calm, saying it is extremely unlikely the plague can be transmitted from person to person, unless the individual infected is coughing due to severe respiratory illness.
Officials have not released the name, age or gender of the child, but have said that the juvenile was recovering. As a precaution, officials are warning residents to protect themselves from bugs using repellant containing DEET and to avoid feeding live, wild rodents and touching dead ones.
– Never feed squirrels, chipmunks or other rodents, and never touch sick or dead rodents.
– Keep wild rodents out of homes, trailers and outbuildings and away from pets.
Early symptoms of plague include high fever, chills, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit and groin.
The case of plague comes three years after a hantavirus outbreak at Yosemite in 2012. People who develop these symptoms should seek immediate medical attention and notify their health care provider that they have been camping or out in the wilderness and have been exposed to rodents and fleas.
In California, infected animals will likely be found in the mountains, foothills and sometimes the coast.
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California health officials announced on Thursday that they were investigating how a child from Los Angeles County contracted plague, the first reported human case of the potentially deadly disease in the state in almost a decade. The disease is treatable in its early stages with prompt diagnosis and proper antibiotic treatment. They are also investigating the patient’s travel history. The last human infection reported in California was in 2006. Plague can be fatal if left untreated. Before Thursday’s announcement, the last two cases of plague in Los Angeles County were in 1984 and 2006, according to information by the acute communicable disease control program with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
