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Дежурный врач
Дежурный врач
Doctor S. Pobedinsky. Writing articles on medical topics. mail : pobedinskiy71 on yandex.ru
Plague Symptoms: How to Recognize and Treat a Deadly Infection (2025)
Plague is a particularly dangerous infection that, contrary to popular belief, has not remained in the past. The causative agent, the bacterium Yersinia pestis, continues to circulate in natural foci on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. Approximately 2,500 cases are registered worldwide annually, primarily in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In Russia, active natural foci exist in Altai, Tuva, Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan, Kalmykia, and the Astrakhan region. However, thanks to modern antibiotics, plague is a completely curable disease if treatment is started in time.
How can one get infected with the plague?
Plague is a zoonotic infection, meaning its source is animals. The main natural reservoir is wild rodents (marmots, susliks, gerbils, voles) and city rats. Fleas parasitizing these animals act as vectors. There are four main routes of human infection:
- Transmitted by flea bite: The most common route. When a flea bites an infected rodent, bacteria multiply in its foregut, forming a "plague block." When attempting to bite a new victim, the flea regurgitates the bacterial plug into the wound.
- Contact: Occurs when skinning game animals, cutting carcasses, or contacting infected tissues.
- Airborne-droplet: Possible only from a person with pneumonic plague via coughing or sneezing.
- Alimentary: Through consuming insufficiently cooked meat of infected animals.
Early symptoms and signs of infection
The incubation period ranges from 1 to 7 days, shortening to 24 hours in pneumonic form. The disease always begins suddenly. Early signs (common to all forms):
- Sudden fever up to 39°C (102°F) and higher, often with severe chills.
- Sharp weakness, headache, muscle pain.
- Nausea, vomiting, sometimes delirium.
- Rapid heartbeat, drop in blood pressure. Specific signs by form:
- Bubonic plague (most common): On days 2–3, extremely painful, enlarged lymph nodes ("buboes") appear, usually in the groin or armpits. The skin over them is tense and purple-bluish.
- Pneumonic plague (most dangerous): Develops lightning-fast: shortness of breath, cough with bloody sputum, chest pain. Without treatment, death occurs within 1–3 days.
- Septicemic plague: Bacteria multiply rapidly in the blood, causing multiple organ failure and bleeding into the skin and organs.
Is plague curable today?
Plague is fully curable with antibiotics if treatment begins within the first 24 hours of symptom onset. In pneumonic form, a delay of more than 24 hours often leads to death. Modern mortality with timely therapy is reduced to 5–10%.
Modern treatment methods Treatment is carried out exclusively in a hospital under strict isolation.
Modern treatment methods Treatment is carried out exclusively in a hospital under strict isolation.
- First-line drugs: Streptomycin (drug of choice) and Gentamicin.
- Alternative drugs: Doxycycline (oral) and Fluoroquinolones (Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin). In 2025, a major study confirmed that a 10-day course of oral Ciprofloxacin is as effective as injectable Gentamicin.
- Duration: Usually 10–14 days, or 3 days after temperature normalization.
- Vaccination: Used only for high-risk groups (lab personnel, medics in endemic areas).
- Emergency prophylaxis: Contacts are prescribed Doxycycline or Ciprofloxacin for 7 days.
Keywords: plague symptoms, yersinia pestis, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, septicemic plague, black death, plague treatment 2025, antibiotics for plague, streptomycin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, plague in Russia, Altai plague foci, how plague is transmitted, plague incubation period, rodent-borne diseases.
