Plague is a lethal transmittable disease. It’s caused by the notorious enterobacteria widely known as Yersinia pestis. It’s carried and spread mostly by rodents – especially rats. It spreads to human bodies through fleas. Things depend a lot on the type and severity of lung infection and/or hygiene, but plague can spread through the air as well. It can spread easily by direct contact and infected undercooked food. Plague germs attack different areas of the body and the symptoms tend vary based on the areas infected. As for an instance, bubonic plague appears into the lymph nodes, whereas septicemic plague infects the blood vessels and pneumonic plague affects the lungs. Fortunately, plague is curable if the infection is detected early on.
Prevention is perhaps the best treatment for bubonic plague. Early treatment vastly increases the chance for full recovery. Unfortunately, plague vaccination isn’t commercially available. Bubonic plague can be cured with antibiotics like Streptomycin and Gentamycin. However, other antibiotics like tetracyclines or chloramphenicol are also effective. Bubonic plague infects the lymph nodes. You should see a physician if you’re feeling fever, headache, inflated lymph nodes, intestinal distress and chills. They’re common bubonic plague symptoms and like said earlier, early treatments help. If you feel these symptoms, be sincere about taking the antibiotics advised by the doctor. If antibiotics are given ahead of the diagnostic tests, you should weight for the lab results to return. The infected should accept isolation. Getting quarantined is important till the healing process is complete. Keeping the ailment confined is important.
Pneumonic plague remains among the 3 most feared diseases triggered by yersinia pestis. Unfortunately, it’s the deadliest as well. To make things worse, sometimes pneumonic plague is also accompanied by bubonic as well as septicemic plague, since they attack as derivatives of the pneumonic plague infections. Quarantine is important when an individual undergoes pneumonic plague symptoms. Special nursing is essential. The care is mostly palliative as most patients ultimately die. Antibiotics need to be administered at once if the symptoms of pnuemonic plague are noticed. It’s a rare form of plague and the infection multiplies must faster than the normal pace of the body’s defense mechanism. Early detection is not possible in most of the cases as the preliminary symptoms resemble a lot to flu or similar types of minor illnesses. It is too late in most cases, unfortunately. The primary line of defense is the use of streptomycin. Other antibiotics can be utilizes as well, but they’re rarely effective. And the dosage essentially has to be adjusted with the patient’s age and health condition. If the patient suffers from breathing complications respiratory therapies are essential.
Tips and comments:
Reporting to a doctor is the first thing to do when plague symptoms are detected. The individual suffering the infection must immediately be examined, quarantined and treated. It is important that the treatments are administered according to the results of the clinical diagnosis. This ensures that the patient has the best chance for recover and the disease is prevented from spreading as an epidemic. The use of antibiotics in pregnancy has to be closely supervised by a gynecologist. It is a good idea to stay abreast of the latest developments in the treatment of pneumonic plague.