Catch up quickly: In late September, a woman who worked at an anti-plague research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region broke a test tube containing a pneumonic plague pathogen, according to local media.
- She reportedly died a few days later in a nearby hospital after showing symptoms of the plague. Authorities established quarantines in five hospitals in the region and placed around 200 people under medical observation.
- The White House, State Department and Department of Health and Human Services are monitoring the suspected outbreak.
The big picture: Plague can be treated with antibiotics, with a high success rate if treated within 24 hours of symptoms appearing.
- Person-to-person transmission is generally rare and requires close exposure to a coughing patient. The CDC says asymptomatic transmission has not been documented.
- But it can still cause outbreaks, making it a global concern.
Here’s what you need to know and how it’s different from COVID.
What is pneumonic plague?
Pneumonic plague is a rapidly progressing lung infection caused by Yersinia pestisa bacteria that caused the Black Death.
- Pneumonic plague differs from bubonic plague, which can result from flea bites, and septicemic plague. All three can be transmitted through flea bites or contact with infected bodily fluids.
- Pneumonic plague can also be transmitted by respiratory droplets expelled when an infected person or animal sneezes or coughs.
- “Pneumonic plague is the most severe form of the disease and the only form of plague that can spread from person to person,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Person-to-person transmission occurs after close exposure to a coughing patient, according to the CDC.
Symptoms, treatment of pneumonic plague
Symptoms may begin within one to three days after inhaling infected air droplets, according to the CDC.
- The main symptoms include: fever, headache, weakness, rapidly progressing pneumonia, shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and bloody or watery mucus.
- Several types of antibiotics can be used to fight any form of plague, including pneumonic, according to the Mayo Clinic.
How deadly is pneumonic plague?
Pneumonic plague can be fatal if left untreated for 24 hours, according to the World Health Organization.
- “Cure rates are high if detected and treated in time,” says the WHO.
Pneumonic plague against COVID-19
Context: Scattered reports of a dangerous, communicable disease abroad have revived memories of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yes, but: When COVID-19 took off, it was a newly identified disease that scientists were still working to understand.
- Pneumonic plague has been studied for over a century, with treatments and control measures in place.
Zoom: COVID-19 is an illness caused by a coronavirus. Pneumonic plague is caused by bacteria.
- Pneumonic plague usually spreads from person to person when a person is near an infected patient who is coughing.
- COVID can spread through airborne particles from people with few or no symptoms.
- Community spread is rare for pneumonic plague, according to the CDC, while COVID can spread quickly through groups, depending on vaccinations and the variant.
Threat level: The two diseases are similar in that they can both affect the lungs, but in very different ways.
- However, pneumonic plague’s faster incubation period makes it easier for health officials to determine if a person is sick.
- People exposed to pneumonic plague may also receive antibiotics before developing symptoms, according to the WHO.
- A person with COVID-19 may have no symptoms for two to 14 days (or no symptoms at all). Treatment for mild cases of COVID may include antiviral medications or home care.
The bottom line: Pneumonic plague is extremely dangerous for the patient and anyone exposed to an infected person. But modern medicine, along with control measures such as masks and isolation, can keep the threat at bay.
Gn Health
