Occurence of Bubonic Plague

Turns out, the plague isn’t just ancient history. New Mexico health officials recently confirmed the first human case of bubonic plague — previously known as the “Black Death” — to surface in the U.S. in 2011.

An unidentified 58-year-old man was hospitalized for a week after suffering from a high fever, pain in his abdomen and groin, and swollen lymph nodes, reports the New York Daily News. (Officials declined to say when the man was released from the hospital.) A blood sample from the man tested positive for the disease.

According to the World Health Organization, there are 1,000 to 3,000 cases of bubonic plague worldwide each year. There are no known cases in Australia or Europe. Areas where cases occur are in Russia, the Middle East, China, Southwest and Southeast Asia, Madagascar, southern and eastern Africa, the Andes mountains and Brazil.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there are 10 to 15 cases of bubonic plague in the United States each year. These cases tend to occur in two regions: northern New Mexico, northern Arizona and southern Colorado; California, southern Oregon and far western Nevada.