US teen dies from rare case of plague
Date June 21, 2015
Colorado: A 16-year-old boy who appeared to have the common flu has died from a rare case of the plague, officials said.
Taylor Gaes' illness didn't present with the telltale sign of the infection - swollen lymph nodes - which would have alerted officials to the illness sooner, said Katie O'Donnell, a Larimer County Health Department spokeswoman.
Instead, he suffered from a fever and muscle aches, which at first made his sickness look like the flu.
The plague is "very rare, which makes it hard to diagnose," O'Donnell said Saturday.
Taylor died on June 8 but officials revealed his illness Friday.
In the last 30 years, three people in Larimer County, in north central Colorado, contracted the plague, O'Donnell said.
The chance that others may have contracted the illness while attending memorial services for Taylor on his family's property is small, officials said.
MORE:
Date June 21, 2015
Colorado: A 16-year-old boy who appeared to have the common flu has died from a rare case of the plague, officials said.
Taylor Gaes' illness didn't present with the telltale sign of the infection - swollen lymph nodes - which would have alerted officials to the illness sooner, said Katie O'Donnell, a Larimer County Health Department spokeswoman.
Instead, he suffered from a fever and muscle aches, which at first made his sickness look like the flu.
The plague is "very rare, which makes it hard to diagnose," O'Donnell said Saturday.
Taylor died on June 8 but officials revealed his illness Friday.
In the last 30 years, three people in Larimer County, in north central Colorado, contracted the plague, O'Donnell said.
The chance that others may have contracted the illness while attending memorial services for Taylor on his family's property is small, officials said.
MORE:
Comment