It's a disease most doctors have only seen in text books, the Bubonic Plague. But some doctors in Colorado were forced to treat it. That's because a 7 year old girl contracted the disease.
Doctors suspect the little girl got the disease while on a camping trip. Her parents say she had been around a dead squirrel. The disease is transferred mainly through small rodents and their fleas. Without treatment, the bubonic plague kills about two thirds of infected humans within 4 days.
Bubonic plague is generally believed to be the cause of the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 14th century. It killed an estimated 25 million people, or 30–60% of the European population.
FactFinder 12 looked into the rareness of the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is an average of about 7 human cases of the plague each year in the U.S.50% of those cases are in people 12-45 years old. Since 1900, there have been 999 reported cases of the Bubonic Plague in the U.S.
