concerns about military lab’s handling of specimens created as bioterror pathogens: Venezuelan can cause rare but serious illnesses in people. Today antibiotics can be used to treat the Disease, but plague still can kill about 11% of those sickened, according to the CDC. Untreated pneumonic plague has a fatality rate of about 93% and can spread from person to person through aerosol generated during coughing. The pathogen sometimes can be blamed for the Black Death that killed millions of people in Europe during the 14th century. People and other animals can get plague from rat or fleabites.
Do not allow pets to hunt or roam in rodent habitat, such as prairie dog colonies.
The use of insect repellent that contains DEET should help prevent fleabites. Do not let pets sleep in the bed; this has been shown to increase the risk of getting the plague. Avoid touching or picking up dead animals that you know who encountered a virus or disease. Eliminate nesting places for rodents around homes, sheds, garages, and recreation areas. Taking antibiotics should help if you already know that you encountered the disease. Inhaling droplets from a cough of an infected person or animal will cause in immediate infection. Avoid touching or skinning infected animals. Contact with rodent and prairie dogs and other rodents must be avoided. Avoid being bit by fleas when traveling to places where the disease is common.
If the bacteria are not treated, it can spread to other parts of the body and cause septicemic or pneumonic plague. Other Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, and extreme exhaustion. The plague can also infect the central nervous system and/or the immune system if not treated right away. The key feature of bubonic plague is a swollen, painful lymph rode, usually in the groin, armpit and/or neck. Types of plague: pneumonic plague, occurs when plague bacteria infects the
lungs.