The Michigan health department has confirmed its first case of bubonic plague this year.
The patient is from Marquette County and has come from Colorado where plague cases have been reported. So far, two have been confirmed to have died in the state.
The Michigan resident has already received the proper treatment and is expected to recover. On the other hand, the health officials want to assure the public there's no threat of human transmission.
Plague has been around for hundreds of years in the United States. The original carriers were the rodents and the fleas with Yersinia pestis from ships that docked on the U.S. ports. From the rats, the bacterium moved on to the rural rodents.
Plague is generally rare but is often found in Western United States, where around 5 to 15 cases are being reported annually. For some reason, the number of cases has jumped significantly his year. There are already more than 13 reported patients including a child from LA County who contracted the disease after a visit to Yosemite Park. The national park had to shut down the campground where the disease might have originated as extra precaution.
The plague has three different forms. These include pneumonic (which affects the lungs), bubonic (which is the most common and is caused by flea bites), and septicemic (which is usually a complication of the other two plagues). Humans may contract the plague by direct contact with an animal, including a dead one, that has the plague, a bite from infected fleas, and inhalation of airborne infectious animal droplets.
It takes between 1 and 7 days before the symptoms of the disease appear such as swelling of the lymph nodes, chills, fever, cough, abdominal pain, skin bleeding, and internal hemorrhage.
The bacterium can be treated with antibiotics, but it has to be administered within 48 hours after the first appearance of the symptoms to significantly reduce the death risk.