Health officials: Elderly Utah resident dies from plague

Bubonic plague bacteria from a patient, in a photo obtained on 15 January 2003 from the US Centers For Disease Control. (CDC/AFP/File)

Health officials say an elderly Utah resident has died after contracting the plague earlier this month.

Charla Haley with the Utah Department of Health says local officials are still investigating how the person contracted the disease but say it might have been spread by a flea or contact with a dead animal.

Haley says the Utah patient had been in rural areas or near campgrounds recently and could have gotten the plague there. She declined to release the person's gender, age or hometown.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 11 other plague cases have been reported in six states since April 1. Three people in those cases have died. They were aged 16, 52 and 79.