title: Plague: Clinics, Diagnosis and Treatment.
abstract: Plague still poses a significant threat to human health and as a reemerging infection is unfamiliar to the majority of the modern medical doctors. In this chapter, the plague is described according to Dr. Nikiforov's experiences in the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and also a review of the relevant literature on this subject is provided. The main modern methods and criteria for laboratory diagnosis of plague are briefly described. The clinical presentations include the bubonic and pneumonic form, septicemia, rarely pharyngitis, and meningitis. Early diagnosis and the prompt initiation of treatment reduce the mortality rate associated with bubonic plague and septicemic plague to 5-50 %; although a delay of more than 24 h in the administration of antibiotics and antishock treatment can be fatal for plague patients. Most human cases can successfully be treated with antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Advanced Training, Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia, Moscow, Russia. v.v.nikiforov@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Vladimir V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Nikiforov
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing, 102206, China.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, 100071, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Research Center for Applied Microbiology, Obolensk, Moscow Region, Russia.
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anisimov
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000592:standards; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D010930:Plague / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D015010:Yersinia pestis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: Bubonic plague; Plague symptoms; Plague treatment; Pneumonic plague; Septicemic plague