The Middle Ages in Europe were a hard time for a number of reasons, many of them regarding lack of appropriate health conditions, which contributed to one of the largest pandemics in the history of mankind, the Black Death, and the disease that caused this outbreak has just appeared in the country through a Colorado bubonic plague death.
In a very rare case - as CBS News reports there are only 7 to 10 cases of the disease appear in the United States every year - a 16 year-old teen from Larimer County, Colorado's bubonic plague death has prompted headlines, as many are concerned about a possible pandemic.
According to Fox News, the Colorado bubonic plague patient was 16 year-old Taylor Gaes, a high school athlete, who's thought to have contracted the deadly virus after being in contact with fleas present on a dead rodent or some such animal in rural area Cherokee Park.
USA Today reports that, while the Colorado bubonic plague investigation is still ongoing, local authorities at Larimer County now believed that he came in contact with the septicemic plague on his family's land near Livermore, northwest of Fort Collins.
According to The Denver Post, the Colorado bubonic plague investigation is being jointly conducted between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the State Health Department and the Larimer County Coroner's office, as cases of this disease are treated with extreme care.
Before Gaes' cause of death was determined, many visited the family home, possibly risking contagion; officials have told news outlets that the family is currently reaching out to those who visited their home for his funeral or attended the scattering of his ashes so they'll get tested to see whether they've been bitten by infected fleas.
Bubonic plague is uncommon in humans and very deadly, as the bacteria responsible for it enters the bloodstream directly.
The recent Colorado bubonic plague death is the first reported in Larimer County since 1999, although a Weld County resident nearby was infected in 2004.
