Yersinia pestis infection natural history, complications and prognosis
Please help WikiDoc by adding more content here. It's easy! Click here to learn about editing.
|
Yersinia pestis infection Microchapters |
|
Differentiating Yersinia Pestis Infection from other Diseases |
|---|
|
Diagnosis |
|
Treatment |
|
Case Studies |
|
Yersinia pestis infection natural history, complications and prognosis On the Web |
|
American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Yersinia pestis infection natural history, complications and prognosis |
|
FDA on Yersinia pestis infection natural history, complications and prognosis |
|
CDC on Yersinia pestis infection natural history, complications and prognosis |
|
Yersinia pestis infection natural history, complications and prognosis in the news |
|
Blogs on Yersinia pestis infection natural history, complications and prognosis |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Assistant Editors-In-Chief: Esther Lee, M.A.
Overview
If plague patients are not given specific antibiotic therapy, the disease can progress rapidly to death. About 14% (1 in 7) of all plague cases in the United States are fatal.
Complications
Untreated bubonic plague has a case fatality of rate 50-60%, with proper identification and prompt treatment the case fatality decreases to around 7%. Untreated septicemia or pneumonic plague is almost universally fatal if untreated early on. Even with proper therapy the latter may lead to mortality rates as high as 50%.
Since the Yersinia pestis pathogens are blood-borne, several organs can be affected, including the spleen and brain. The diffuse infection can cause an immunologic cascade to occur, leading to disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), which in turn results in bleeding and necrotic skin and tissue. Such a disseminated infection increases mortality to 22%.