Boy dead, three sick and more than 100 quarantined as Kyrgystan battles bubonic plague
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.
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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
(1,142 posts)What's with all the panic?
Turborama
(22,109 posts)...and should be given antibiotics within 24 hours of the first symptoms to prevent death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubonic_plague#Treatment
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
(51,666 posts)I'll show you "panic". Panic is what will happen if you DON'T quarantine aggressively. Followed by mass death.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)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
(51,666 posts)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
(1,142 posts)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
(51,666 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)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
(90,202 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)raccoon
(31,092 posts)Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Unlike in times past we have the knowledge to stop this before it spreads further.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)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
(51,666 posts)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
(8,159 posts)Here in western NE (prairie dogs) and in SD.
colorado_ufo
(5,717 posts)Here in Western Colorado, prairie dogs are persistent carriers, via fleas.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)wonder what the vector is, fleas on their domestic animals or rats?
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)... 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....