If you thought the bubonic plague died with the Dark Ages, think again. An unidentified patient from Coconino County was rushed to the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department and died the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare confirmed on Thursday. According to an autopsy, the man died from a severe lung infection caused by Yersinia pestis, otherwise known as the Black Death or the pneumonic plague, NBC reports. (The pneumonic plague is spread by respiratory transmission, as opposed to the bubonic plague, which is caused by bites from infected fleas.) According to the CDC, 14 people have died from the plague in the U.S. between 2000 and 2023. This marks the second fatal case of the plague in Coconino County since 2007, when a biologist in the Grand Canyon National Park was exposed to the virus while conducting an autopsy on a mountain lion. Cases of the plague are rare, but cases are reported every year in rural parts of the western U.S. and regions of Asia and Africa. There are no vaccines for the plague currently available in the U.S. The CDC recommends avoiding exposure to fleas as the best form of plague prevention.
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