Diagnosing and Treating Plague

Plague is a very serious illness, but it can be treated with commonly available antibiotics — and the sooner someone gets appropriate care, the better their chance of full recovery.

If you live in or have recently traveled to the western United States or another area where plague is endemic, and you have symptoms that suggest plague, get health care immediately.

Recognizing it

Doctors should consider plague in sick people who live in or recently visited the western United States or other plague-endemic areas.

• The most common sign of bubonic plague is a bubo — a lymph node that swells quickly and becomes painful.
• A known flea bite, or a bubo, can prompt a doctor to consider plague.
• In septicemic and pneumonic plague, there are often no obvious signs pointing to plague.

Laboratory testing

Diagnosis depends on laboratory tests of samples from the patient, especially blood or tissue from a swollen lymph node. If plague is strongly suspected, antibiotics should start as soon as samples are taken, without waiting for results.

Close contacts

People in close contact with very sick patients with pneumonic plague may be evaluated and possibly placed under observation. Depending on the type and timing of their contact, they may also be given preventive antibiotics.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Diagnosing Plague."