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Pneumonic Plague: Early Warning Signs and How Dangerous Is It? · Stories Today

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  Speaker 1: Pneumonic plague is a lung infection caused by the bacterium
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  Speaker 1: Yersinia pestis.
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  Speaker 2: Untreated, it kills. In one to three days.
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  Speaker 1: Treated with antibiotics within 24 hours of the first symptoms,
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  Speaker 1: most patients survive.
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  Speaker 2: What happened in Russia? A woman who.
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  Speaker 1: Worked at an anti-plague research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region
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  Speaker 1: died on October 1-2. Doctors suspect plague. Russia has not confirmed.
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  Speaker 2: RIT.
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  Speaker 1: Local reports name her as Daria Shipalova, 28. They say
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  Speaker 1: she broke a test tube holding their pneumonic plague pathogen
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  Speaker 1: on September 25. She was admitted to Shelikhov Hospital with
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  Speaker 1: severe pneumonia of unknown etiology and died there. The hospital
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  Speaker 1: was quarantined, and the staff were isolated. Russian media say
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  Speaker 1: 189 people are under medical observation. Russia's official account.
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  Speaker 2: Differs.
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  Speaker 1: The health watchdog Rosbottrop Nadzor says she had pneumonia of
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  Speaker 1: unknown cause, and that. Further testing found no microorganisms linked
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  Speaker 1: to her work. Alexei Sidonov, who leads neighboring. Buryatia, first
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  Speaker 1: said she died of plague and had never visited his republic.
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  Speaker 1: Axios noted that he later edited his post to say she, possibly,
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  Speaker 1: died of it. He also said no plague outbreak exists
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  Speaker 1: in Bari Asia, including the districts along the Mongolian border.
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  Speaker 1: Washington is watching. The State Department said it is aware
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  Speaker 1: of reports of a fatal suspected case. Secretary of State
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  Speaker 1: Marco Rubio told reporters he is monitoring the situation closely
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  Speaker 1: and that it hasn't caused alarm. President Trump said the
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  Speaker 1: US would help if Russia asks. The State Department also
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  Speaker 1: told Radio Free Europe it wants Russia to share more information.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody has reported a second case. Axios says there is
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  Speaker 1: no evidence so far of person-to-person spread. Most of the
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  Speaker 1: detail comes from Russian media, so expect it to shift.
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  Speaker 1: What is pneumonic plague? Plague has three forms, bubonic, septicemic
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  Speaker 1: and pneumonic. Pneumonic attacks the lungs. The CDC calls it
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  Speaker 1: the most serious form, and it's the only one that
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  Speaker 1: passes from person to person. You can catch it two ways.
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  Speaker 1: Breathing in droplets coughed out by in Infected person or
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  Speaker 1: animal is one. The other happens when bubonic or septicemic
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  Speaker 1: plague goes. Untreated, and the bacteria reach the lungs. Also read.
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  Speaker 2: How long does a chest infection last? UK.
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  Speaker 1: Recovery guide. How soon do symptoms start? Usually within 1-3
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  Speaker 1: days of exposure.
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  Speaker 2: According. To the CDC.
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  Speaker 1: Some state health departments list a window of up to
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  Speaker 1: six days. What happens in the first 72 hours? On
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  Speaker 1: day one, the fever shows up fast, sometimes within hours. Chills,
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  Speaker 1: a pounding, headache, weakness and muscle aches come with it,
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  Speaker 1: and many people cough from the start. It feels like
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  Speaker 1: a bad flu, so people.
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  Speaker 2: Stay home and wait. That's the mistake.
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  Speaker 1: Health agencies say antibiotics need to start within 24 hours
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  Speaker 1: of the first symptom. By day two, the cough gets worse.
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  Speaker 1: The CDC describes a fast-developing pneumonia with shortness of breath,
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  Speaker 1: chest pain, and mucus that can be watery or bloody.
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  Speaker 1: A chest X-ray often shows both lungs affected, but many
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  Speaker 1: pneumonias look the same. So doctors lean on exposure history
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  Speaker 1: and lab tests. Day three is when untreated patients crash.
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  Speaker 1: The lungs fail and blood pressure drops into septic shock.
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  Speaker 1: One medical source puts death at 18 to 36 hours
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  Speaker 1: after symptoms begin. Others give a window of up to
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  Speaker 1: three days. How deadly is pneumonic plague? Without treatment, nearly
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  Speaker 1: everyone who gets it dies. With antibiotics started inside the
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  Speaker 1: first 24 hours, recovery rates are high, according to Healthline's
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  Speaker 1: medical review. Each hour of delay costs you. It's also rare.
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  Speaker 1: The world records roughly 1,000 to 2,000 plague cases a year,
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  Speaker 1: mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
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  Speaker 1: The western US sees a handful.
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  Speaker 2: Annually. And most are bubonic. Also read.
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  Speaker 1: How long does norovirus last in the UK?
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  Speaker 2: Recovery.
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  Speaker 1: Timeline and care. Where did plague come from? It lives
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  Speaker 1: in wild rodents and the fleas that feed on. Them.
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  Speaker 1: Central Asia, including the steppe along the Russia and Mongolia border,
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  Speaker 1: has carried natural. Plague for centuries. That's why Siberia hosts
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  Speaker 1: anti-plague institutes. One expert told News Nation that the region
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  Speaker 1: is where Russia does a large share of its plague research.
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  Speaker 1: Three big pandemics. Shaped history. Justinian's plague hit the Byzantine
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  Speaker 1: Empire in 541 CE and killed millions. The Black Death
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  Speaker 1: reached Europe in 1347 and killed an estimated 75 to
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  Speaker 1: 200 million people, wiping out somewhere between a third and
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  Speaker 1: half of Europe. The third pandemic began in China's Yunnan province.
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  Speaker 1: In the 1850s, spread from Hong Kong after 1894, and
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  Speaker 1: killed about 12 million, mostly in India. The Worst pneumonic
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  Speaker 1: outbreak on record hit Manchuria in 1910 and 1911. It
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  Speaker 1: traced back to infected Tabagan marmots, and about 60,000 people died.
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  Speaker 2: Dr.
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  Speaker 1: Wu Lin Tei argued the disease traveled through the air
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  Speaker 1: and pushed for cloth masks and quarantine. He was right,
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  Speaker 1: and the outbreak led to the 1911 International Plague Conference
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  Speaker 1: in Mukden. More recently, Madagascar's 2017 outbreak produced over 2,400
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  Speaker 1: cases and around 200 deaths, most of them pneumonic.
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  Speaker 2: How does it spread?
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  Speaker 1: And how do doctors contain it? It spreads through droplets
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  Speaker 1: from a coughing patient, and it requires close contact. It's
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  Speaker 1: far less contagious than measles or COVID-19, which is why
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  Speaker 1: quarantine works. Patients stay isolated for at least 72 hours
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  Speaker 1: after starting antibiotics, though some hospital guidance uses 48. Contacts
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  Speaker 1: usually get doxycycline for seven days after their last exposure.
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  Speaker 1: That's likely what's happening to the 189 people in Irkutsk.
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  Speaker 1: Healthcare workers wear N95 respirators. Doctors don't wait for test results.
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  Speaker 1: A preliminary result can come back in about two hours,
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  Speaker 1: but confirmation takes 24 to 48, so they treat on suspicion.
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  Speaker 1: First-line drugs are levofloxacin and moxifloxacin. Severe cases also need oxygen,
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  Speaker 1: IV fluids and sometimes a ventilator. The US has no
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  Speaker 1: approved plague vaccine. How can you protect yourself? Most people
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  Speaker 1: don't need to do anything. If you live in or
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  Speaker 1: travel to an area with plague, stay away from sick
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  Speaker 1: or dead animals, especially rodents. Use flea repellent, treat your
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  Speaker 1: pets for fleas, keep food sealed and don't Sleep near burrows.
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  Speaker 1: If you've been close to someone with suspected pneumonic plague,
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  Speaker 1: call a doctor about preventive antibiotics. If fever and cough
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  Speaker 1: hit after that kind of exposure, go to a hospital
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  Speaker 1: the same day and say the word plague so staff
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  Speaker 1: can isolate you.