--- title: Bubonic Plague Appears in Michigan for the First Time description: The person is recovering canonical: https://time.com/4034153/michigan-bubonic-plague/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-14T21:53:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:55:51.208Z article:section: Health og:title: Michigan Sees First-Ever Case of Bubonic Plague og:description: The person is recovering og:url: https://time.com/4034153/michigan-bubonic-plague/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michigan Sees First-Ever Case of Bubonic Plague twitter:description: The person is recovering twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Michigan Sees First-Ever Case of Bubonic Plague by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 14, 2015 9:53 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 14, 2015 9:53 PM UTC State officials say Michigan has its first-ever bubonic plague patient, though the person reportedly caught the disease in Colorado. The patient, whose identity has not been revealed, apparently contracted the disease from a flea bite in Colorado, which has seen [several cases](http://time.com/3987291/plague-claims-one-life-in-colorado/) of the plague this year. The disease never developed into the more-contagious pneumonic plague, which can be transmitted between humans, and the victim is said to be recovering, according to the Detroit _Free Press_. The CDC says only seven people contract the plague in the U.S. each year on average, though this year has seen a spike: 14 cases have already cropped up, killing four. \[[_Detroit Free Press_](http://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2015/09/14/bubonic-plague-case--michigan/72273070/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4034153/michigan-bubonic-plague/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4034153/michigan-bubonic-plague/"},"headline":"Michigan Sees First-Ever Case of Bubonic Plague","datePublished":"2015-09-14T21:53:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:55:51.208Z","description":"The person is recovering","url":"https://time.com/4034153/michigan-bubonic-plague/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","Michigan"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4034153/michigan-bubonic-plague/","name":"Michigan Sees First-Ever Case of Bubonic Plague"}}]}] ```