Bubonic Plague Symptoms and Treatment

Bubonic Plague Treatment for Close Contacts

Any individuals closely associated with the patient should be traced, identified, and evaluated. Contacts of patients with pneumonic plague should be placed under observation or given preventive antibiotic therapy, depending on the degree and timing of contact.

 

What Is the Prognosis?

Because bubonic plague bacteria can quickly multiply in the bloodstream if they are not treated, possibly causing septicemic plague, or even progress to the lungs, causing pneumonic plague, it is important for a patient to receive treatment for bubonic plague as soon as possible. The mortality rate is 50 to 90 percent if left untreated; it drops to 15 percent when diagnosed and treated early.