Myron said human plague cases in the state are rare, with the most recent cases reported in 1991 and 1992.
Plague remains endemic in many countries in the world and Madagascar is currently the country where the highest number of human plague cases is reported every year.
The height of plague season is summer, not November, and there had not been a single instance of human plague that year in New Mexico.
About 1,000 confirmed or probable cases of human plague occurred in the US between 1900 and 2010, most of them in the arid southwest, according to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) website.
There have been only four cases of human plague in Los Angeles County since 1984, none of which was fatal, according to officials.
Another study looked at 23 cases of cat-associated human plague in the Western United States.
According to the CDC, an average of 7 human plague cases are reported in the U.S. each year.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of seven human plague cases are reported each year in the United States.
[T]here are thousands of cases of human plague a year in central, eastern and southern Africa, South America and in large areas of Asia, and mortality rates are much higher in some areas with poorer access to health care.
"It is important for the public to know that there have only been four cases of human plague in Los Angeles County since 1984, none of which are fatal," Fielding said.
