WASHINGTON — A Colorado teen has died of the plague after likely being bitten by fleas on his family’s property northwest of Denver.
CBS 4 in Denver identified the teen as a 16-year-old Cherokee Park boy and reported that the teen died as his parents rushed him to the hospital on June 8.
The Larimer County Health Department announced Friday that officials had confirmed the cause of the boy’s illness as the plague. He was the first resident of the county to have contracted the plague since 1999.
Local health officials are working with the state health department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine how the teen contracted the disease. But he likely was bitten from fleas from a dead rodent or other animal. Others who visited the family’s property since his death may also have been infected, according to the county health department.
Bubonic plague is the most common form of the disease to afflict humans. Symptoms include swollen lymph nodes, sudden fever or chills, severe headache, extreme exhaustion and feeling of illness.
Cases of the plague are reported sporadically, mostly in rural parts of the Western United States. On average, seven cases of the plague are reported each year nationwide, according to the CDC.
