Bubonic plague is alive and, if not thriving, at least maintaining a presence in the United States. Just ask the New mexico man who’s now earned the distinction of becoming the first human plague case of 2011.
The 58-year-old Santa Fe County resident has been hospitalized and is recovering, say officials from the New mexico Department of Health.
The folks there are likely less rattled than folks in the eastern U.S. would be. New mexico has seen 262 human cases of bubonic plague between 1949 and 2010. Most recently, six people came down with the plague in 2009, including one 8-year-old boy who died.
Humans can get the plague from the bite of a flea carrying the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, and this happens with some regularity in the West.
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