Public health officials in Colorado have confirmed that a human has tested positive for the plague, a rare but potentially deadly infectious disease that’s typically spread through flea bites.
The infected individual is from Pueblo County, according to the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment.
While the plague conjures nightmares of flea-infested rats and dreary medieval villages filled with the dead and dying, in the modern day things aren’t so grim.
Shit, someone gets the plague here every year, it’s even more common in New Mexico.
When I first moved to Colorado, I was definitely surprised the first time I saw something about bubonic plague in the headlines but I’ve lived here long enough that it’s just something that happens every year or so, it’s pretty much always isolated and most of the time the person recovers.
More people die hiking in this state than from plague and I don’t think that’s going to stop people from hiking anytime soon. Same with skiing and I’ll be on the slopes come winter.