(Chicago, IL) -- Chicago health officials have started taking the precautionary measures to keep the Bubonic plague from spreading following the death of a University of Chicago geneticist.

Sixty-year-old Malcom Casadaban died last week within 12-hours of developing intense flu-like symptoms.

Casadaban had been working with a strain of Yersenia pestis, which only affects ten-to-15 people in the U.S. each year.

Fellow researchers at the University of Chicago say its unlikely the plague is a threat to the general public.

Officials believe there was something about Casadaban's genetic makeup that made him susceptible.

However, officials are offering antibiotics to the people who were closest to him.

　

(Copyright 2009 by VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions)