A New Mexico man just lately went tenting in Rio Arriba County, close to the Santa Fe Nationwide Forest, and got here residence with the bubonic plague. The New Mexico Department of Health says the 43-year-old camper is the primary human case of the plague in New Mexico up to now this yr. An individual tenting in northern California, close to Lake Tahoe, equally contracted the plague earlier this month from a flea chunk.
The micro organism Yersinia pestis causes the bubonic plague, which was once a demise sentence. At this time, individuals who come down with the “Black Dying” require antibiotics and often survive. Rodents like squirrels, chipmunks, mice, and rats can carry the an infection. Contaminated fleas can switch the micro organism between rodents and people.
[RELATED: Camper Contracts Bubonic Plague After Being Bitten by Flea]
“Plague [circulates] amongst wildlife all through the western United States,” wrote the New Mexico Division of Well being in a social-media put up sharing the information. “A Division of Well being environmental evaluation finds no proof of elevated threat of plague within the space. The final human plague case in [New Mexico] was a Lincoln County resident in 2024.”
See the New Mexico Division of Well being’s put up concerning the New Mexico camper who contracted the plague:
Header inventory picture of Santa Fe Nationwide Forest by Ann Talbot/Getty Photographs