US health officials have closed sections of Yosemite park in California after a second person appears to have contracted the plague in the park.
The disease is spread by rodents and fleas and the tourist’s camp is now being treated with insecticide, the BBC reports.
The California public health department has said “the risk to human life remains low”. It is the second such case in the past month, after a child contracted the disease during a visit to the park.
This incidence was discovered when a person in the state of Georgia learned that authorities were spraying areas of the park for fleas, to combat the spread of the disease. The person went to their doctor and was diagnosed with the plague.
CDPH helps reduce the risk of plague transmission at Crane Flat Campground in Yosemite. More @ http://t.co/fQnle8wbX9 pic.twitter.com/8ksnhR0UwN
— CAPublicHealth (@CAPublicHealth) August 14, 2015
California Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith said in a statement that warnings issued by officials had helped discover the latest case.
“Warnings issued in California regarding plague were useful all the way across the country in Georgia,” she said.
“Those warnings helped the patient get the prompt medical attention necessary to recover from this illness.”
The plague was also found in two dead squirrels found in the park. In California plague-infected animals are most commonly found in the foothills of mountains and along the coast.
This is the fourth case of the plague in the United States in 2015, after two people died from the disease in Colorado earlier this year. Since 1972 there have been 41 cases. Just nine of those cases were fatal.
In 2014 plague infected animals were discovered in nine counties across California.
The plague is typically treatable with antibiotics and antimicrobial medication and is not transferable between humans unless the infected patient also has an infection in the lung and is coughing.
Yosemite Park remains open to visitors, with the exception of the affected area.
