Volume 25, Number 12—December 2019
Dispatch
Animal Exposure and Human Plague, United States, 1970–2017
Table 1
Characteristics of reported human plague case-patients, United States, 1970–2017*
Characteristic | Total | Animal exposure before illness |
|
---|---|---|---|
Yes | No | ||
Case-patients |
482 (100) |
258 (54) |
224 (46) |
Sex | |||
M | 278 (58) | 152 (59) | 126 (56) |
F |
204 (42) |
106 (41) |
98 (44) |
Median age, y (range) |
31 (<1–94) |
33 (2–85) |
24 (<1–94) |
Race/ethnicity†‡ | |||
White | 220 (46) | 135 (52) | 85 (38) |
American Indian/Alaska Native | 114 (24) | 52 (20) | 62 (28) |
Not specified | 94 (20) | 45 (17) | 49 (22) |
Hispanic | 51 (11) | 25 (10) | 26 (12) |
Asian |
3 (<1) |
1 (<1) |
2 (1) |
Primary clinical form† | |||
Bubonic | 364 (76) | 200 (78) | 164 (73) |
Septicemic | 91 (19) | 41 (16) | 50 (22) |
Pneumonic | 15 (3) | 13 (5) | 2 (<1) |
Pharyngeal | 3 (<1) | 2 (<1) | 1 (<1) |
Gastrointestinal | 2 (<1) | 1 (<1) | 1 (<1) |
Other and unknown |
7 (1) |
1 (<1) |
6 (3) |
Died |
65 (14) |
40 (16) |
25 (11) |
Known flea bite |
104 (22) |
49 (19) |
55 (25) |
State of exposure | |||
New Mexico | 253 (52) | 124 (48) | 129 (58) |
Colorado | 66 (14) | 44 (17) | 22 (10) |
Arizona | 62 (13) | 33 (13) | 29 (13) |
Other and unknown | 101 (21) | 57 (22) | 44 (20) |
*Values are no. (%) unless otherwise indicated.
†Indicates statistically significant difference (α = 0.05) in proportion with characteristic between patients with animal exposure and those without animal exposure.
‡Several established race and ethnicity categories were absent among reported case-patient records and therefore not included.