A New Mexico man recently went camping in Rio Arriba County, near the Santa Fe National Forest, and came home with the bubonic plague. The New Mexico Department of Health says the 43-year-old camper is the first human case of the plague in New Mexico so far this year. A person camping in northern California, near Lake Tahoe, similarly contracted the plague earlier this month from a flea bite.
The bacteria Yersinia pestis causes the bubonic plague, which used to be a death sentence. Today, people who come down with the “Black Death” require antibiotics and usually survive. Rodents like squirrels, chipmunks, mice, and rats can carry the infection. Infected fleas can transfer the bacteria between rodents and humans.
[RELATED: Camper Contracts Bubonic Plague After Being Bitten by Flea]
“Plague [circulates] among wildlife throughout the western United States,” wrote the New Mexico Department of Health in a social-media post sharing the news. “A Department of Health environmental assessment finds no evidence of increased risk of plague in the area. The last human plague case in [New Mexico] was a Lincoln County resident in 2024.”
See the New Mexico Department of Health’s post about the New Mexico camper who contracted the plague:
Header stock image of Santa Fe National Forest by Ann Talbot/Getty Images