Bloomberg Last week, local health authorities in northern Arizona confirmed a person died of the plague. It’s the county’s first death from pneumonic plague, a type of bacteria that infects the lungs, since 2007. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the victim, like the person’s age and gender, how the disease was contracted or what symptoms were displayed. But the person was diagnosed with the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which can be transmitted to humans through infected flea bites or interaction with an infected animal, according to local health officials. The Arizona death comes months after actor Gene Hackman’s wife Betsy Arakawa died of hantavirus in New Mexico – a disease transmitted by rodents.
The headlines may make you wonder whether you could be susceptible to an infection. The good news: Any type of plague is extremely rare. Still, it’s good to know the signs and what carries the disease to keep yourself protected from the medieval scourge.