SANTA FE, N.M., Jun 5, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- An 8-year-old boy from Santa Fe
County, N.M., has died from the bubonic plague and his 10-year-old sister is
undergoing treatment, health officials say.
The New Mexico Department of Health says these are the first human plague cases
this year in the United States. New Mexico's last plague death was in Bernalillo
County, which includes Albuquerque, in 2007.
In the latest case, the boy, whose name was withheld, died within the past few
days, Deborah Busemeyer, health department communications director, told the
Albuquerque Journal.
Bubonic plague is not contagious, Busemeyer said, but rather a bacterial disease
of rodents generally transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas.
But, she said, it can also be transmitted by direct contact with infected
animals, including pets, rodents and wildlife.
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