Arizona Patient Dies in Emergency Room From Plague

A person in northern Arizona has died from a case of pneumonic plague, local health officials said.

The unidentified patient, from Coconino County, showed up to the Flagstaff Medical Center Emergency Department and died there the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare said in a statement. It is unclear when the death occurred.

The hospital noted that “appropriate initial management” and “attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation” was performed, but “the patient did not recover.”

Rapid diagnostic testing led to a presumptive diagnosis of Yersinia pestis.

Coconino County Health and Human Services said testing results confirmed Friday that the patient died from pneumonic plague, described as “a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium.”

This marked the first rec