A teenage girl from Oregon being treated for the plague is the 16th U.S. case this year, NBC News reported.
The highest annual number of cases in the country this century was 17 in 2006.
State health officials said that it was believed that the girl acquired the disease from a flea bite on a hunting trip. She’s now recovering in the hospital.
Plague is easily treated with antibiotics and only about 16% of patients die because they are diagnosed too late.
Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, weakness, and sometimes a bloody or watery cough. The CDC recommends doctors think about plague when diagnosing the flu to people who have been outdoors and encountered flees.
