Fourth fatality out of 12 cases adds up to highest death rate in 15 years, but health authorities say risk remains very small overall

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

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A man in his 70s in Utah has died after contracting the plague, bringing to four the number of deaths from the disease reported in the United States this year, health officials have said.

Officials said they believed the victim might have contracted the disease from a flea or contact with a dead animal.

“That’s the most common way to get it,” said JoDee Baker, an epidemiologist with the agency. “That’s probably what happened but we’re still doing an investigation into that.”

The rare disease that is carried by rodents and spread by fleas. It is naturally occurring in Utah rodents and is often seen in prairie dog populations. Wildlife and health officials confirmed in July that an outbreak of bubonic plague killed 60 to 80 prairie dogs in an eastern Utah colony.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 12 human cases had been reported in six states since 1 April. The other three people who died were ages 16, 52 and 79.



Anywhere between one and 17 cases of the illness have been reported each year in the US since 2000, according to the CDC. Deaths are rare, with no more than two a year having been recorded over the past 15 years.

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However Dr Paul Mead said four deaths so far this year was not necessarily a cause for alarm. “Yes it’s twice as many, but when you’re dealing with small numbers, you have that kind of variation.”

Patients in a few of the 11 other cases this year came down with the plague after visiting Yosemite national park in California.

The last human case of plague in Utah was in 2009, but state health department spokeswoman Charla Haley said no deaths from plague had been recorded in the state in at least 35 years.

