Utah public health officials have confirmed that an elderly Utah resident has died from plague. That takes the total number of plague cases in the U.S. up to 12 for the year and is the nation's fourth plague death in 2015.
According to the Utah Department of Health, plague is naturally occurring in Utah and is seen in the prairie dog population annually. Officials are still investigating how this patient contracted the illness, which is typically spread to humans via fleas or from contact with an infected animal.
Prior to this patient, the last case of human plague in Utah was in 2009. According to a report from the Guardian, no one in Utah had died from the plague for at least 35 years.
The CDC reports that from 2001 to 2012, the number of human plague cases per year has ranged from one to 17, with a median of three per year.