The health department didn’t detail who died, beyond that it was an adult.
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The City-County Health Department said the only animals confirmed with plague so far this year in Pueblo County were in an area of Turkey Creek near the county’s western edge.
County health officials confirm the death of a man in Pueblo County, which is also considered as the second Colorado plague death this year.
The unusually wet spring and summer of the state is said to be fueling the plague because the cooler, moist weather makes it easier for rodents to spread the disease, while fleas survive longer within moist conditions.
“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.
An investigation is continuing, and Pueblo County residents are being urged to report any unusual instances of rabbits and prairie dogs “dying off”.
Today the disease is exceptionally rare in the US – with an average of just seven cases identified each year.
None of the 17 cases reported between 2005 and 2015 were in Pueblo County.
Until this year, the last time someone died of the plague in the United States was in 2013 in New Mexico. That hasn’t happened in the United States since 1924.
The health department is investigating the case with experts from the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.
The dog-to-human transmission apparently is quite rare. That was a 2009 case in China.
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The most common form of the plague is bubonic, in which the infection spreads through the body’s tissue into the lymphatic system, producing swelling. While it can be life-threatening, with modern medicine such as antibiotics and antimicrobials it is usually not deadly, as it was in the Middle Ages when millions died.
