Health officials have announced that a teenage girl in Oregon has tested positive for bubonic plague on Thursday.

Oregon Health Authority's Public Health Division and the Crook County Public Health Department confirmed that during a hunting trip near the town of Heppner in eastern Oregon earlier this month, a flea bite infected the girl.

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Health officials said that the girl's condition is not yet known and she remains admitted in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Bend, central Oregon. They added that the girl got sick on Oct. 21 and was hospitalized on Saturday Oct 24. No one else besides the girl has become sick. This case is only the eighth plague diagnosed in the state since 1995.

According to Reuters, Oregon state public health veterinarian Emilio DeBess stated that people believe the plague was a centuries-old scourge but currently it is in our environment especially among wildlife.  Good enough that plagues remain rare, nonetheless people should still be cautious and follow the right precautions. BuzzFeed reported that despite modern antibiotics and technology to enable early detection, authorities still do not recommend for people to touch sick or dead rodents nor to feed squirrels and chipmunks.

Rat-infested steamships that sailed from affected areas such as Asia introduced plague to the United States in 1900, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency claims that less than 10 human plague cases have been reported recently in the country.

The bubonic plague was also called Black Death in the Middle Ages. World Health Organization has confirmed that although death rate may vary and is increased in areas where the plague is usually found, there is still about 8 to 10% mortality in most cases.

Squirrels, chipmunks, and other wild rodents carry the plague bacteria. Once they die from the plague, infected fleas who perch on the animal can transmit it to humans. High fever, nausea, chills, weakness, and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin are its early symptoms. 

Tagsteenage girl in oregon, bubonic plague, Oregon Health Authority, crook county public health department, CDC, WHO