New Mexico boy dies of bubonic plague

SANTA FE, N.M., June 5 (UPI) -- An 8-year-old boy from Santa Fe County, N.M., has died from the bubonic plague and his 10-year-old sister is undergoing treatment, health officials say.

The New Mexico Department of Health says these are the first human plague cases this year in the United States. New Mexico's last plague death was in Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, in 2007.

In the latest case, the boy, whose name was withheld, died within the past few days, Deborah Busemeyer, health department communications director, told the Albuquerque Journal.

Bubonic plague is not contagious, Busemeyer said, but rather a bacterial disease of rodents generally transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas. But, she said, it can also be transmitted by direct contact with infected animals, including pets, rodents and wildlife.