New Delhi, July 12 -- A resident of north Arizona died from pneumonic plague, marking the first death in the region in 18 years. The last death was reported in 2007, when an individual had contact with a dead animal infected with the disease, health officials said on Friday.

Plague, once known as the "Black Death" that nearly wiped out half of Europe's population, is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis - with two main clinical forms of plague infection - bubonic and pneumonic, as per the World Health Organization (WHO).

It is now rare in humans and treatable with antibiotics.

On Friday, the Arizona patient, however, did not recover despite 'appropriate initial management,' and 'attempts to provide life-saving resuscitation,' reporte...