Los Angeles, CA (AHN)-Health officials say a woman who was hospitalized earlier this month with bubonic plague is the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County in more than two decades.

Officials say the unidentified woman was admitted April 13 with a fever, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. After a blood test confirmed she had contracted the bacterial disease, she was placed on antibiotics and is in stable condition.

Los Angeles county director of public health, Dr. Jonathan Fielding says health officials suspect the woman was exposed to fleas in her central Los Angeles home, but adds, "There's no cause for alarm in the community."

According to federal statistics, an estimated 10 to 20 Americans contract plague each year, mostly in rural communities, with about one in seven cases being fatal.

According to the AP report, Bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe between 1346 and 1351. The last major urban outbreak in the U.S. occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-25, when at least 30 people died.