Work-Related Diseases
Find information on occupational work-related diseases including diseases, category and group, synonyms, severity, latency, risk factors, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatments and options.
Plague
Occupational Disease Plague
Plague Category Infection, Occupational
Plague Severity
Acute-Severe
Plague Synonyms
Yersinia pestis infection; Black Death
Information on Plague Symptoms, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Screening and Imaging
Plague is carried by rodent fleas. Bubonic plague begins with an initial lesion at the site of the flea bite and regional lymphadenitis. Inguinal nodes are most commonly involved, and they may suppurate. Secondary pneumonic plague develops in some cases with a grave prognosis. Antibiotic treatment is highly effective if begun early. The vaccine has very limited use. Cats and dogs may carry rodent fleas into households. Plague bacilli can also be transmitted by handling the tissues of infected animals and, rarely, by inhalation of droplets from infected patients or animals with plague pneumonia or pharyngitis. [Chin, p. 381-7] Leucocytosis (increased white blood cells) is a common finding. [Wallach, p. 629] The three types of plague are bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic. In bubonic plague, 1/4 of patients have a papule, pustule, or ulcer at the site of the flea bite. Bloody sputum is characteristic of pneumonic plague. The chest x-ray may show patchy or consolidated infiltrates. About 15% of patients with pneumonia also have pleural effusions. [http://www.usamriid.army.mil/education/bluebook.html] "Abdominal pain, presumably due to mesenteric lymphadenopathy, occurs in 40% of patients [with septicemic plague]." [Merck Manual, p. 1172]
Plague Latency
1-7 days
Plague References
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/index.htm