Boy dead, three sick and more than 100 quarantined as Kyrgystan battles bubonic plague

[Turborama]

Source: AFP

KYRGYSTAN officials are scrambling to control the spread of bubonic plague that killed a rural boy last week as three more people showed possible symptoms of the disease.

The easternmost district of Ak-Suu in the Central Asian country was in lockdown while police guarded the hospitals where 15-year-old Temirbek Isakunov was treated and died last Thursday.

The emergency ministry said that three more people from the same village as the victim were hospitalised yesterday on suspicion of being infected with the deadly disease.

=snip=

Bubonic plague is a bacterial infection that is a strain of the "Black Death", a virulent disease that killed tens of millions of people in 14th-century Europe.

Primarily an animal disease, it is extremely rare in humans.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/boy-dead-three-sick-as-kyrgystan-battles-bubonic-plague/story-fndir2ev-1226705378758

[perdita9]

1. Treatable with antibiotics

What's with all the panic?

[Turborama]

4. People potentially infected with the plague need immediate treatment

...and should be given antibiotics within 24 hours of the first symptoms to prevent death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubonic_plague#Treatment

Mortality/Morbidity
Bubonic plague has a 1-15% mortality rate in treated cases and a 40-60% mortality rate in untreated cases.
Septicemic plague (primary or secondary) has a 40% mortality rate in treated cases and 100% mortality rate in untreated cases.
Pneumonic plague (primary or secondary) has 100% mortality rate if not treated within the first 24 hours of infection.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/829233-overview#a0199

Also, to paraphrase the article, they are quarantining people to prevent the possible spread of the disease.

[kestrel91316]

15. Oh, but that is just "panic" according to one woefully ignorant poster here.

I'll show you "panic". Panic is what will happen if you DON'T quarantine aggressively. Followed by mass death.

[Jenoch]

6. The needed antibiotics are not as ubiquitous in that part of the world.

They need to figure out who needs to be treated with the antibiotics as well. If they don't get the antibiotics within 24 hours of the first symptoms then the survival rate goes down.

[kestrel91316]

7. Because the vast majority of physicians in the world wouldn't recognize a case of

plague if it came up and bit them in the ass. Well, at least not until the buboes developed and it was too late, and possibly not even then. And they are not at all capable of recognizing PNEUMONIC plague or SEPTICEMIC plague, because they don't have unique markers on physical exam.

And yes, I do know a thing or two about plague. It's part of my professional responsibility.

[perdita9]

10. They'll recognize it if they know it's going around

I'm not saying we shouldn't pay attention to this story. I'm just confused about all the panic. That's not how to effectively handle a public health crisis.

[kestrel91316]

13. Who is panicking? Link?

[kestrel91316]

14. If you are thinking that the very appropriate public health measures they are taking to control

the spread are "panic", you are sadly mistaken. Plague spreads like wildfire, and in Third World countries they don't have a very good grip on hospital hygiene. Undiagnosed cases of plague can spread to many people before anyone knows what is going on, and once people wind up with the pneumonic form, it spreads like wildfire X 1000.

Where did you get YOUR public health education? Off the back of a Wheaties box?

[Hekate]

19. Those Wheaties boxes have a lot to answer for. Thanks as always Kestrel for sound info. nt

[kestrel91316]

20. YVW!

[raccoon]

11. Right--"when you hear hoofbeats, don't think of zebras." nt

[Marrah_G]

2. Things like this make me appreciate the WHO, CDC, etc

Unlike in times past we have the knowledge to stop this before it spreads further.

[newfie11]

3. It shows up occasionally in America

I remember it on a reservation in SD and one in NM. Also a campground I think
In Washington state.

All ya need is a flea carrying it.

[kestrel91316]

8. Plague is endemic to wild rodents in the SW US. They find ground squirrels with it here in SoCal on

a regular basis.

About 30 years ago a veterinarian in Tujunga (IIRC) died of pneumonic plague acquired when he did a most unwise postmortem exam on a wild ground squirrel that somebody had brought to his vet clinic.

And in Denver several years ago another veterinarian was exposed when a sick cat was brought to her clinic and she performed a physical exam on it and had close physical contact. She got pneumonic plague and was in the hospital, comatose, and near death in well under 24 hours. She made a full recovery, but that's nothing short of miraculous and a testament to what heroic medical care can do on occasion.

It's an occupational hazard for us here. I sincerely hope I never encounter it.

[newfie11]

16. Yea it does show up

Here in western NE (prairie dogs) and in SD.

[colorado_ufo]

17. Correct.

Here in Western Colorado, prairie dogs are persistent carriers, via fleas.

[Sunlei]

5. sounds like they're getting a handle on treatment. That's a remote place in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan

wonder what the vector is, fleas on their domestic animals or rats?

[kestrel91316]

9. It lives in wild rodents. Their fleas spread it to humans and domestic animals.

[kestrel91316]

12. Pretty good basic background info on plague at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_(disease)

[Hekate]

18. It's only rare in humans because we learned to control rats and fleas in our cities. It still exists

... and is endemic in rodents in the South West US.

Once it gets into a human being it is transmitted by coughing as pneumonic plague, and is very deadly.

I'm sorry for these people and hope that they get adequate medical support and that the quarantine works to keep it from spreading.

Yersinia Pestis....