Apache County Confirms First Human Plague Case Since 2015

Apache County health officials are confronting plague, measles and chickenpox at the same time, a rare mix of infectious threats that has put vaccination outreach, exposure alerts and environmental follow-up at the center of public health work across the Navajo Nation.

The county said a resident who tested positive for plague recovered after appropriate medical care. It was the first confirmed human plague case in Apache County since 2015 and the fourth since 2006. Officials said the risk to the general public remained low, but they also pointed to the 2015 rodent die-off that signaled active plague transmission in the environment, a reminder that the disease still circulates in the rural Southwest.

The Navajo Department of Health confirmed the plague case on April 8 within Apache County on the Navajo Nation and said the Diné Bikéyah Public Health Team was working with local, state and federal partners on environmental assessment and prevention. County officials also said health care providers in the region were aware of the case and prepared to evaluate and treat patients if needed, an important step in a county where distances between communities and medical care can be long.

The bigger public-health picture is broader than one recovered patient. Navajo Nation officials said the first measles case of 2026 was announced March 20, and a second case was confirmed March 28. The exposure notice for that case listed Page, Arizona, Manson Mesa High School, Banner Page Hospital and Tuba City Regional Health Care, with exposure-watch dates extending into April. Officials said measles is highly contagious and airborne, and the standard protection is two MMR doses, with the first at 12 months and the second at 4 years. Babies under 12 months are too young to be vaccinated, which leaves infants dependent on the immunity of the people around them.

Chickenpox is part of the same warning pattern. Navajo Nation officials issued a chickenpox advisory in February after confirmed varicella cases and urged residents to stay current on vaccination. CDC guidance says two doses of varicella vaccine are about 90% effective at preventing chickenpox, making missed shots a real gap in protection for households, schools and clinics.

For Apache County’s 66,021 residents, and for the larger Navajo Nation population of 165,158 on reservation and off-reservation trust land, the message is plain: avoid wild rodents and burrows, keep pets treated for fleas, do not handle sick or dead animals, clear debris that can attract rodents, and use Indian Health Service or tribal health facilities for vaccination and evaluation. In a region this spread out, fast alerts and preventive care remain the best defense against a case that could otherwise travel far beyond one household.