Key TakeawaysAlthough the plague never fully went away, there are only seven new cases each year in the United States.The plague is spread through flea bites or direct contact with the tissues or fluids of an infected animal.Common antibiotics can treat the plague
Key Takeaways
Although the plague never fully went away, there are only seven new cases each year in the United States.The plague is spread through flea bites or direct contact with the tissues or fluids of an infected animal.Common antibiotics can treat the plague
An Oregon resident likely contractedbubonic plaguefrom their cat, according to local health officials.
Cases of plague mostly occur in rural areas of the western U.S., where rodents are prone to fleas that may carry plague bacteria. Humans can get infected with bubonic plague either through flea bites or direct contact with the tissues or fluids of an infected animal.
The plague is treatable with common antibiotics, so health authorities are not worried about an outbreak following the Oregon case.
What Are the Symptoms of Plague?
Bubonic is the most common type of plague. It causes fever, chills, headaches, and painful swollen lymph nodes—called buboes—near the site of the flea bite.
“If you got a flea bite on your hand, then you would have a swollen node in your axilla [armpit]. If you got a flea bite on your leg, then you’d have a swollen node in your groin,”Timothy F. Brewer, MD, MPH, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Verywell.
Pneumonic plague—the most severe form of plague—may develop from inhaling infectious droplets as well. It’s a lung infection that causes fever, headache, chest pain, coughing, and shock.
“Pneumonic plague is so severe and so quick that you don’t get buboes, and usually those patients need to be treated right away or they will succumb to the disease,” Brewer said.
How Is Plague Treated?
It’s fairly easy for healthcare providers to diagnose bubonic plague if the patient has flu-like symptoms and painful swollen buboes. Septicemic and pneumonic plague often have no obvious signs, but a diagnosis can be made through blood cultures and lab testing.
Untreated pneumonic plague can be fatal in less than 24 hours.Treatment is started as soon as plague is suspected, even if the results of a blood culture are not available yet.
“The good news is that widely available antibiotics do work against plague,” Brewer said.
Antibiotic treatments can last 10–14 days or for two days after a person’s fever breaks. A patient may start with intravenous (IV) antibiotics first but switch to oral medications once they start feeling better. The key is to get the patient on these treatments as soon as possible, Brewer added.
People who are treated early are likely to recover from the plague fully. Sometimes, closecontacts of patients with pneumonic plague may be given preventative antibiotics.
“This is really a rare problem and not something that most people need to worry about,” Brewer said.
What This Means For You
7 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: maps and statistics.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ecology and Transmission.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: symptoms.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: diagnosis and treatment.World Health Organization.Plague.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: resources for clinicians—diagnosis.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: Prevention.
7 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: maps and statistics.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ecology and Transmission.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: symptoms.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: diagnosis and treatment.World Health Organization.Plague.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: resources for clinicians—diagnosis.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: Prevention.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: maps and statistics.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ecology and Transmission.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: symptoms.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: diagnosis and treatment.World Health Organization.Plague.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: resources for clinicians—diagnosis.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: Prevention.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: maps and statistics.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ecology and Transmission.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: symptoms.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: diagnosis and treatment.
World Health Organization.Plague.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: resources for clinicians—diagnosis.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Plague: Prevention.
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