A resident in South Lake Tahoe, California, has examined constructive for plague, in line with native well being officers.
The particular person is believed to have been bitten by an contaminated flea whereas tenting, officers mentioned.
In a separate incident last month, an individual in Arizona died from plague.
Plague is a illness brought on by a kind of micro organism that often ends in about seven circumstances nationally every year, in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It happens naturally in areas of the western U.S., the place it circulates amongst wild rodents and different animals. People often get contaminated by way of the chew of an contaminated rodent flea or by dealing with an contaminated animal. Signs, together with fever, nausea, weak spot and swollen lymph nodes, often present up inside two weeks of publicity, in line with well being officers.
“Plague is of course current in lots of elements of California, together with increased elevation areas of El Dorado County,” Kyle Fliflet, El Dorado County’s performing director of public well being, mentioned in a press release. “It is vital that people take precautions for themselves and their pets when outside, particularly whereas strolling, mountain climbing and or tenting in areas the place wild rodents are current.”
The illness could be cured with antibiotics, which have to be given shortly to stop critical sickness or loss of life. A minimum of 15 individuals have died from plague since 2000, the latest CDC data shows.
The chance to the general public of publicity in addition to the danger of human-to-human transmission stays low, in line with well being officers.
