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A Colorado high school student died of the plague in early June, the first person since 1999 to get the plague in Larimer County, in northern Colorado, health authorities said.

The 16-year-old, Taylor Gaes, was an avid baseball and football player, according to the Coloradoan. The teenager's parents initially attributed his fever and muscle aches and pains to a bad case of the flu. They learned only after his death that he had septicemicplague, a rare form of the disease that happens when plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis) spread throughout the body, often in the blood stream, the Coloradoan reported.

It's tragic but not surprising that Gaes' symptoms were misinterpreted, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior associate at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for Health Security, who was not involved in Gaes' treatment. [Pictures of a Killer: A Plague Galler