Bubonic Plague Kills Kazakstan Boy

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MOSCOW (AP) -- A 13-year old boy has died of bubonic plague in Kazakstan after being bitten by a flea carrying the contagious disease, according to a news report Tuesday.

Ruslan Shunayev fell ill while working on a family farm near the Aral Sea, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. His illness was initially misdiagnosed, but doctors in Aralsk eventually determined he was suffering from bubonic plague, a highly contagious disease transmitted by fleas from infected rats.

Doctors were checking 20 people who had been in contact with the boy recently, the report said.

Three cases of bubonic plague have been diagnosed in the Aral Sea region recently, the report added. The disease often causes the victim to suffer a high fever and delirium. [end] I think these ever increasing reports are interesting especially in light of germ/biological warfare threats of late.

Also is this disease treatable?

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), August 10, 1999

Answers

"Is this treatable?":

Until a doctor answers:

Treatable in early stages, less as time goes on. Not 100% fatal without treatment, not 100% curable with (or even close). Also there are different strains. And if PULMONARY form, almost invariably fatal.

This sounds like the common variety, pretty treatable if caught early.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), August 10, 1999.


There have been State parks in California closed because people have been infected with the plague from fleas that came off of squirrels. And yes, it is treatable.

-- parkrangerrrrrr.com (park ranger@parkrangerrrr.com), August 10, 1999.

Always assuming that the proper antibiotics are available, and the disease is recognized.

Got Pyrethrins? got Flea Collars?

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), August 10, 1999.


FYI, treatments for Plague:

(from Merck Manual, 16th Ed -- if you don't have one, you NEED a copy)

pp115: "Treatment should be immediate upon suspicion of plague; prompt treatment reduces mortality to <5%. In septicemic or pneumonic plague, treatment must begin within 24 hours. Stretomycin 30 mg/kg/day IM in 4 equal doses at 6 h intervals for 7 to 10 days is the regimen of choice...(snip)...Although no controlled clinical trials have been conducted on gentamicin, it is probably also effective. An alternative agent is tetracycline 30 mg/kg IV or orally in divided doses. For persons with plague meningitis, chloramphenicol is the drog of choice, given in a loading dose of 25 mg/kg IV followed by 50 mg/kg/day in divided doses IV or orally...."

The Merck notes that "most untreated" cases of airborne (pneumonic) plague die within 48 hours of onset of symptoms.

BUT!!! Put this in perspective: you are much more likely to see severe consequences from diarrhea (dehydration can cause deaths in the young and old, quite rapidly) than from the VERY RARE cases of plague. Get your shots up to date, and buy plenty of rat traps!

Anita Evangelista

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), August 11, 1999.


Flea collars! Thanks for the thought, Chuck! We can start a new Y2K fashion wave with the Hartz Mountain ankle and wrist bracelet craze. And on the same subject, don't forget worm treatments, too.

I won't go into things too deeply, but I knew some special operations guys who were stationed "up country" in Laos a few years back. It seems that under primitive living and sanitary conditions (sound like certain Y2K scenarios?), they came down with worms.

Their cure? They had their families in the states mail packages of pet de-wormer and they took the stuff. It didn't agree with what the instructions on the package said (Not for human use) and it was an uncomfortable ordeal, but they did get rid of their cases of worms.

Don't overlook the possibilities. And remember that into the mid and late 1800's, worms and fleas were "normal" human maladies. Let's hope that we don't find ourselves back under such circumstances and prepare to keep ourselves from such if we get close. Yep, gotta go shop the pet department next time I go to Wally World...

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), August 11, 1999.



What shots other than tetanus should a person get? Anita didn't you write a book? If so what is the name of it? Thanks

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), August 11, 1999.

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