Plague Pit Bull, a rare occurrence in 90 years was traced by medical experts infecting at least four people in Colorado last year. On April 30, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that Plague Pit Bull was the largest outbreak of pneumonic plague in the U.S. warning about the dog-to-human transmission.
However, after medical experts have studied its outbreak, Colorado was announced Plague Pit Bull-free.
The root of the Plague Pit Bull was traced after a two-year-old American pit bull terrier fell sick with symptoms of fever and was coughing with blood. TIME reported that after some days, the man was reportedly became ill too while developing the same symptoms.
Following the owner of the pit bull became terribly ill for 23 days the medical experts from the Tri-County Health Department traced back all the people that the owner and the dog could have possibly been in contact with.
Out of the 114 people, they found out that Plague Pit Bull has also infected two of the veterinary clinic assistants who euthanized the dog, and the other close companion of the owner, the CNN reported.
88 people were given antimicrobials and were asked to monitor any sign of Plague Pit Bull symptoms. None of them got sick or had fever.
"There is no evidence this is a mutated strain or anything," said Dr. John Douglas, director of Colorado's Tri-County Health Department. "It is rare, and we don't know if it has simply been missed before or if it something about this particular breed of dog. We haven't been able to determine that."
It was cited that the fourth victim, the woman was infected with Plague Pit Bull by human transmission. The first ever reported case since 1924 was a rare occurrence.
There are only seven cases occurrences of Plague Pit Bull each year. Colorado has a total of 60 cases since the year 1957.
The Daily Mail reported that the man, who owns the pit bull, was found to be positive with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes Plague Pit Bull.
All the victims of the Plague Pit Bull had recovered from the outbreak. However, the owner of the pit bull is the one who had developed more severe symptoms. All of them were treated with antibiotics.
According to NPR report, pneumonic Plague Pit Bull spreads through the air. Analysis of the case by the Tri-County Health Department has found that the outbreak is most common in the West. Prairie dogs, rodents and fleas can spread the pneumonic plague easily.
Although it is alarming to know that Plague Pit Bull can be spread through air, the Colorado public officials have said that Colorado is now safe and free from Plague Pit Bull.
