U.S. health authorities reported a case of bubonic plague in California and it is believed to have been caused by a flea in a rural area.
A resident of South Lake Tahoe in El Dorado County may have been infected while camping in the woods, the Sacramento Public Health Department reported.
The authorities indicated that the disease could have been transmitted by the bite of a flea and asked people to take precautions when camping or hiking trails where wild animals that could be carriers of the disease live.
“Plague is naturally present in many parts of California (…) it is important for people to take precautions outdoors,” Kyle Fliflet, El Dorado’s interim public health director, told local media.
On July 11, the United States reported the death of one person from bubonic plague in northern Arizona, the only recently reported case of death.
According to the World Health Organization(WHO), between 30% to 60% of those infected by this disease die depending on the country where they were infected.
Currently, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Peru are the three countries with the highest incidence of endemic bubonic plague, according to WHO, according to information from EFE.
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