Public health officials in Arizona have confirmed that a human in the state has died from pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection caused by the same bacterium that caused the Black Death.

An Arizona resident has died from the plague as officials were probing whether a prairie dog die-off in the area was also tied to the lethal illness.

Officials confirmed one person died of pneumonic plague just days after a prairie dog die-off believed to be related to plague.

A recent pneumonic plague death in Northern Arizona, the first since 2007, has raised concerns about this rare but deadly disease. Caused by Yersinia pestis, it affects the lungs and spreads through respiratory droplets or from untreated bubonic/septicemic plague.

As per the hospital, the patient in Arizona failed to recover even after "appropriate initial management" and “attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation”.

It has since been confirmed that the patient’s death was caused by pneumonic plague, which is a severe lung infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium.