Plague Symptoms
A bacterium called Yersinia pestis causes plague, a rare bacterial infectious disease of animals and humans. People usually get plague from being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium or by handling an infected animal. Symptoms
usually show up 2 to 6 days after getting plague. Symptoms include fever, chills, weakness, and swollen and painful lymph nodes. A few people get pneumonia (infection of the lungs) as a first symptom of plague. The infection then spreads to other parts of the body. Today, modern antibiotics are effective against plague, but if an infected person is not treated promptly, the disease is likely to cause illness or death. Symptoms of plague vary depending on the type and on how you contract it. There are three clinical forms of human plague: bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic.
Symptoms of Bubonic Plague
Bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes, another part of the lymph system.
Within three to seven days of exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms will
develop such as fever, headache, chills, weakness, and swollen, tender lymph
glands, called buboes-hence the name bubonic.
Is it contagious? Bubonic plague is rarely spread from person to person.
Symptoms of Septicemic Plague
This form of plague occurs when the bacteria multiply in the blood.
Symptoms include fever, chills, weakness, abdominal pain, shock, and bleeding
underneath the skin or other organs. Buboes, however, do not develop.
Is it contagious? Septicemic plague is rarely spread from person to person.
Symptoms of Pneumonic Plague
This is the most serious form of plague and occurs when Y. pestis bacteria
infect the lungs and cause pneumonia.
How is it contracted? Pneumonic plague can be contracted in one of two ways.
- Primary pneumonic plague is contracted when plague is inhaled. This type
of plague can be spread to someone else.
- Secondary pneumonic plague develops when bubonic or septicemic plague goes
untreated after the disease has spread to the lungs. At this point, the
disease can be transmitted to someone else.
Within 1 to 3 days of exposure to airborne droplets of pneumonic plague,
fever, headache, weakness, rapid onset of pneumonia with shortness of breath,
chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery sputum develop.
Is it contagious? Pneumonic plague is contagious. If someone has pneumonic
plague and coughs, Y. pestis bacteria suspended in respiratory droplets is
released into the air. An uninfected person can then develop pneumonic plague by
breathing in those droplets.
Call your doctor if you or someone close to you develops signs or symptoms of
plague within a week of any of the following:
- Having close contact, within three feet, with a person
or animal with pneumonic plague
- Being exposed to a sick or dead animal
- Being bitten by a flea or by an unknown insect
- Spending time in an area with a known, recent plague
outbreak or with a large number of dead or dying animals
- Traveling to a high-risk region of the United States
or another country with high plague rates, including Brazil, the Republic of
Congo, Madagascar, Myanmar, Peru and Vietnam
Plague Symptoms to P
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