The patient was recently treated at an emergency department in Flagstaff and died the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare said.
Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department in 2012.Matt York / AP file
By Marlene Lenthang
A person in northern Arizona has died from a case of pneumonic plague, local health officials said.
The unidentified patient, from Coconino County, showed up to the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department and died there the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare said in a statement. It is unclear when the death occurred.
The hospital noted that “appropriate initial management” and “attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation” was performed, but “the patient did not recover.”
Rapid diagnostic testing led to a presumptive diagnosis of Yersinia pestis.
Coconino County Health and Human Services said testing results confirmed Friday that the patient died from pneumonic plague, described as “a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium.”
This marked the first recorded death from pneumonic plague in the county since 2007, when an individual had an interaction with a dead animal infected with the disease, according to county officials.
The most common forms of plague are bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Pneumonic plague “develops when bacteria spread to the lungs of a patient with untreated bubonic or septicemic plague, or when a person inhales infectious droplets coughed out by another person or animal with pneumonic plague,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Bubonic plague — known for killing millions in Europe in the Middle Ages — is now rare but some cases are reported in the rural western U.S. every year, as well as in certain regions of Africa and Asia, according to the CDC. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and affects people and other mammals.
Symptoms usually appear within two to six days of infection and include fever and swollen painful lymph nodes, most commonly found in the armpit, groin and neck.
