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Antibiotics effective against plague
(CNN) -- Cases of the plague are still reported, if infrequently, in the United States and most are treatable with modern antibiotics. Bubonic plague is a bacterial disease, named Yersinia pestis, found in rodents and is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pneumonic plague, a more serious form of the disease, occurs when plague bacteria are inhaled after direct contact with infected animals, including rodents, wildlife and pets. It's characterized by development of an overwhelming pneumonia with high fever, chills, and coughing up a bloody mucus-like secretion from the lungs. For plague pneumonia patients, the death rate is more than 50 percent. The plague, with an incubation period ranging from two to 10 days, can be spread from human to human when a plague pneumonia patient has coughs, sending plague bacteria into the air. "All you have to be within 12 inches if someone coughs on you," said Chris Kozlow, with Innovative Emergency Management, a risk management company. "If someone coughs on a telephone and I pick up that telephone, ... I could start to get sick. Therefore, I become a carrier." Millions of people in Europe died from plague in the Middle Ages when flea-infested rats ran rampant near human living quarters. Today, outbreaks still occur in the United States, mostly in the Southwest. The CDC reports an average of 10 to 20 cases each year, usually in rural areas, with about 14 percent fatal. Globally, there are 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year, according to the World Health Organization. Today, a seven-day antibiotic treatment is highly effective against the plague, say experts. "People can be treated with widely available antibiotics," said Jonathan Tucker, a bioterrorism expert in Washington, D.C. "If they (people who have been exposed) are treated within 24 hours, they are almost assured to be cured. After that period, it can be more difficult."
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