Plague Still Exists, but Can Be Treated With Antibiotics
It settles in the lungs and can move from person to person, prompting quarantine, but experts say it spreads less easily than many other germs.
Reuters World News · Saudi airport attacks, Democrats trans split and botched executionPlague still infects people today. A 28-year-old worker named Darya Shipilova became sick and died in the past week after work at a Siberian facility that studies plague.
Her death prompted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, to ask Russia for more information. Initial media reports pointed to pneumonic plague after an accidental exposure in the lab. Russia's health regulator says there is no risk of an epidemic, and there is still no confirmation that Shipilova had plague. Health officials also first isolated about 200 people as a precaution.
Pneumonic plague is the form of plague that affects the lungs. Unlike the better known form spread by flea bites, this variant settles in the airways.
Malik Ghebani, an expert in bacterial vaccines, says it can cause severe illness, including fever, pneumonia, and what doctors call sepsis syndrome, a dangerous body-wide reaction to infection spreading through the blood.
Because it is in the lungs, pneumonic plague can theoretically spread from one person to another. That is why public health officials pay close attention to this form.
That sounds alarming, but Ghebani adds an important qualification. Plague can move person to person, but it is not as highly contagious as some other germs.
And there is treatment. Ghebani says plague can certainly be treated with antibiotics. That combination is why quarantine comes first, with antibiotics for anyone actually infected.
Questions people ask
Is this the same plague as the Black Death?
Yes, it is caused by the same bacterium, Yersinia pestis. The Black Death was mostly bubonic plague, spread by flea bites and marked by swollen lymph nodes. Pneumonic plague is the same germ infecting the lungs instead.
How do people usually catch pneumonic plague?
Most cases start as bubonic plague from the bite of an infected flea, often carried by rodents, and then spread to the lungs. It can also be caught by breathing in droplets from a person or animal with lung infection, usually after close and prolonged contact. Laboratory exposure, as suspected in Siberia, is rare.
If antibiotics work, why is it still dangerous?
Pneumonic plague can progress very fast, sometimes within a day or two, and can be fatal without prompt treatment. Antibiotics are highly effective when started early. Delays in diagnosis, especially where plague is uncommon, are the main danger.