Oregon Teen Contracts Bubonic Plague After Hunting Trip

The girl, who has not been identified, is thought to have contracted the illness from a flea bite. Here, a photo of Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. (Photo: Getty Images)

Officials in Oregon say a teenage girl is in intensive care after contracting bubonic plague during a hunting trip earlier this month.

The girl, whose name and age have not been revealed, is believed to have contracted the disease from a flea bite, the Oregon Health Authority said in a press release Thursday.

She was hospitalized on Saturday, Oct. 24, and remains in the ICU.

No one else is thought to have contracted the disease, which is rare in Oregon (officials say there have only been eight cases of the plague in the state since 1995, but no one is known to have died of the disease).

The news follows months of very public plague cases.

In August, two unidentified people contracted the plague after camping at Yosemite National Park. One adult fell ill after visiting Yosemite, the Sierra National Forest, and nearby areas before becoming sick.

Earlier that month, officials said that a child camping in Yosemite National Park fell ill with plague and was sent to a hospital.

The child’s family, from Los Angeles County, camped at Yosemite’s Crane Flat Campground in mid-July and visited other places in the Stanislaus National Forest. No other family members were sickened, and the child was said to have recovered.

Related: What’s Behind the Increase in Plague Cases

This is the fifth case of plague in the American West this year; there have also been two plague-related deaths in Colorado.

One adult died in early August after contracting the plague from an unknown source. The Pueblo City-County Health Department has not revealed his or her identity but said the person may have developed the disease after coming into contact with fleas on a dead rodent or other animal. The department also noted that a dead prairie dog in the western part of the county tested positive for the disease.

In June, a Colorado teenager died just days after coming down with flulike symptoms caused by the plague.

Taylor Thomas Gaes was a promising athlete who was killed by septicemic plague, a rare form of the bacterial infection that he was thought to have contracted from a flea bite, the Denver Post reports.

Related: After Colorado Teen’s Death From Plague, How Worried Should We Be About the Disease?

An average of seven cases of the plague occur in the U.S. each year, the CDC reports. They’re typically seasonal as well, with most cases occurring between late spring and early fall.

Symptoms can vary depending on the type of plague a person contracts. But a high fever is present in nearly all cases, as well as flulike symptoms. People with pneumonic plague may also develop a bloody cough, and those who contract bubonic plague usually experience painful, swollen lymph nodes.

The plague is serious — if left untreated, it can have a death rate of 50 percent or higher.

The FDA approved the drug Levaquin in 2012 to treat the plague, joining other antibacterial drugs, such as streptomycin, doxycycline, and tetracycline, that are approved for the treatment of the infection. A vaccine for the plague is also in the works, according to the CDC, but nothing is expected to be available to the public in the near future.

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