MARQUETTE, MI (WTVB) – Michigan has it’s first-ever reported case of bubonic plague. The “Detroit News” says 33-year-old Alisha Plescher, a teacher from Marquette in the Upper Peninsula, apparently caught the flea-borne disease while hiking in Colorado.
State health officials say Plescher’s case did not develop into the more contagious form of the plague, and that she poses no risk to anyone. Doctors say she is recovering from the rare illness.
There have been 14 cases of the plague this year in the U.S., way above the average of 3 the country normally experiences each year. Four of the people died from the illness and health officials don’t know why the number of cases has spiked.
