Symptoms and Treatments of Plague

Plague

Bubonic plague is the best-known manifestation of the bacterial disease plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Bubonic plague is often used synonymously for plague, but it does in fact refer specifically to an infection that enters through the skin and travels through the lymphatics, as is often seen in flea-borne infections.

Plague is an infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The bacteria are found mainly in rats and in the fleas that feed on them. People and other animals can get plague from rat or flea bites. Historically, plague destroyed entire civilizations.

The Black Death Plague

In the early 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China. The bubonic plague mainly affects rodents, but fleas can transmit the disease to people. Once people are infected, they infect others very rapidly. Plague causes fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes, which is how it gets its name.

Symptoms of Plague

Bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes (another part of the lymph system). Within 3 to 7 days of exposure to plague bacteria, you will develop flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, chills, weakness, and swollen,

Bubonic plague

This is the most common type of plague in humans, accounting for the majority of naturally occurring cases.

Septicemic plague

Septicemic plague occurs when plague bacteria multiply in your bloodstream. You can contract this form of plague when bacteria transmitted by a fleabite enter directly into your bloodstream, or as a complication of bubonic or pneumonic plague.

The incubation period for plague is two to six days for bubonic plague and two to four days for primary pneumonic plague.

A few days after being infected, a victim developed a rash and there was pain all over the body. The victim began to feel tired and lethargic but the pain made it difficult to sleep. The temperature of the body increased and this affected the brain and the nerves.

Treatments of Plague

As soon as a diagnosis of suspected plague is made, the patient should be isolated, and local and state health departments should be notified. Confirmatory laboratory work should be initiated, including blood cultures and examination of lymph node specimens if possible.

When plague is suspected and diagnosed early, a health care provider can prescribe specific antibiotics (generally streptomycin or gentamycin). Certain other antibiotics are also effective.

The surfaces of influenza viruses are dotted with neuraminidase glycoproteins. The enzyme Neuraminidase is needed for the viruses to break free from an infected cell after replication, setting free new viruses that can infect other cells and spread infection.

Antibiotics are usually used for bubonic plague treatment, and the patient is hospitalized and placed in isolation even before lab results are known. Without prompt treatment, the bacteria can quickly multiply in the bloodstream or spread to the lungs.

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