A MAN in his twenties has died of bubonic plague after catching the incredibly rare condition.
The young man was New Mexico's second case of the deadly disease after he was unable to be saved.
The unidentified victim was taken to a local hospital in Rio Arriba County and passed away on Friday.
In June, a man in his 60s was also diagnosed with bubonic plague but recovered in hospital.
Health officials are now investigating the home and family of the young man that died of the rare infection.
It is not yet known how the pair managed to contract the disease.
Authorities say the two men lived more than one hundred miles apart and believe it is unlikely the cases are linked.
New Mexico Department of Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel said: "Plague activity in New Mexico is usually highest during the summer months, so it is especially important now to take precautions to avoid rodents and their fleas which can expose you to plague".
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates there are between 1,000 and 2,000 cases of plague around the world every year.
The medieval disease is easily treatable with modern medicine – but left untreated, most infected will die within a week.
In the 14th Century the black death – a collection of plagues including bubonic plague – tore through the globe making it the most deadly recorded pandemic in history.
The bacterial disease is spread by fleas living on wild rodents like marmots.
It killed 200 million people across Africa, Asia and Europe wiping out 60 per cent of Europe's population.
Sufferers will develop abdominal pain, diarrhoea and vomiting and some people will bleed from their mouths, noses or rectums.
In July, health bosses in China issued a warning after a case of bubonic plague was confirmed in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
Pansoch Buyainbat, 27, his brother, 17, and one other person from Mongolia contracted the disease.
The following month, an entire village in China was closed because of the outbreak.
And earlier this month, a 42-year-old man died from the bubonic plague in Mongolia, prompting neighbouring Russia to vaccinate thousands against the disease.
The man, from the Khovd province, died after purchasing two infected marmot rodents, according to reports.
History of the Black Death
The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague which struck Europe and Asia in the 1300s.
It killed more than 20 million people in Europe.
Scientists now know that the plague was spread by a bacillus known as yersina pestis.
The bacteria can travel through the air as well as through the bites of infected fleas and rats.
Bubonic plague can cause swelling of the lymph notes. If untreated it could spread to the blood and lungs.
Other symptoms included fever, vomiting and chills.
Physicians relied on treatments such as boil-lancing to bathing in vinegar as they tried to treat people with the plague.
Some believed that the Black Death was a "divine punishment" – a form of retribution for sins against God.
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