A first for almost 20 years. A patient hospitalized in the emergency room of Arizona, in the United States, died of the pulmonary plague, local health authorities announced in a press release this Friday, July 11.
County County Health Service describes this rare disease as a “severe pulmonary infection caused by Yersinia Pestis bacteria.” According to the Lille Pasteur Institute, this bacillus infects “usually small animals.”
There are no cases in France since 1945
There are different plague forms, such as bubonic plague, which is the most common and is caused by the bite of an infected chip. The pulmonary plague, which extends to the lungs in other forms of unrelated pest, is the most serious and generally rare. According to Public Health France, the last cases of plague diagnosed in France date from 1945, in Corsica.
This is the first death due to the lung plague registered in the county since 2007, says NBC News. According to a census carried out by the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC), the plague is detected on average in seven people in the United States every year.
Source: BFM TV
