CBRNE - Plague Medication

  • Author: Susan E Dufel, MD, FACEP; Chief Editor: Robert G Darling, MD, FACEP   more...
 
Updated: Jun 3, 2011
 

Medication Summary

Medical management of plague can involve a myriad of supportive medications, including crystalloids, colloids, medications used for intubation, vasopressor agents, and antiulcer and antipyretic agents. This section only describes antibiotic management of plague. Early administration of antibiotics is essential after samples for diagnostic purposes have been obtained.

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Antibiotics

Class Summary

Drugs that cover Y pestis should be empirically given to any patient with predisposing risk factors and signs and symptoms of the plague. Antibiotic treatment duration should be 10 days. In severe cases, a 2-drug regimen should be used. Antibiotic regimens for postexposure prophylaxis should be considered for close contacts of infected patients. Dosages and antibiotics are covered below.

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Gentamicin (Garamycin, Jenamicin)

 

Aminoglycoside antibiotic for gram-negative coverage. Drug of choice (DOC) with consideration of use as secondary agent.

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Streptomycin

 

Alternative DOC in combination with consideration of use with a secondary agent. Drug often not commercially available. Treatment usually limited to 5 d due to toxicity concerns. Continuation of secondary agent for full 10 d recommended.

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Chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin)

 

DOC to be used as secondary agent in plague meningitis (better CNS penetration), profound hypotension, and pleural and/or pericardial involvement. May be considered as secondary agent. DOC for pregnant patients. Binds to 50S bacterial ribosomal subunits and inhibits bacterial growth. Effective against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.

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Doxycycline (Doryx, Vibramycin, Bio-Tab)

 

Inhibits protein synthesis and thus bacterial growth by binding to 30S and possibly 50S ribosomal subunits of susceptible bacteria.

May be considered as secondary agent or for postexposure prophylaxis.

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Ciprofloxacin (Cipro)

 

Fluoroquinolone that inhibits bacterial DNA synthesis and, consequently, growth, by inhibiting DNA gyrase and topoisomerases, which are required for replication, transcription, and translation of genetic material. Quinolones have broad activity against gram-positive and gram-negative aerobic organisms. Has no activity against anaerobes.

Animal studies have shown effectiveness against the plague. Can be considered as a secondary agent or as an agent for postexposure prophylaxis.

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Tetracycline (Sumycin, Tetracyn IV)

 

Treats susceptible bacterial infections of both gram-positive and gram-negative organisms as well as mycoplasmal, chlamydial, and rickettsial infections; inhibits bacterial protein synthesis by binding with 30S and possibly 50S ribosomal subunits of susceptible bacteria; use with either streptomycin or gentamicin. Consider as a secondary agent or for postexposure prophylaxis.

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Co-trimoxazole (Bactrim, Septra)

 

DOC for prophylaxis of pregnant women and children < 8 y; inhibits bacterial synthesis of dihydrofolic acid by competing with PABA, inhibiting folic acid synthesis and resulting in the inhibition of bacterial growth.

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Contributor Information and Disclosures
Author

Susan E Dufel, MD, FACEP  Program Director, Associate Professor, Department of Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Connecticut School of Medicine

Susan E Dufel, MD, FACEP is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Coauthor(s)

Deirdre Cronin, MD  Resident Physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Specialty Editor Board

Dan Danzl, MD  Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Professor, University of Louisville Hospital

Dan Danzl, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Emergency Medicine, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Association, Kentucky Medical Association, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and Wilderness Medical Society

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD  Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy; Editor-in-Chief, Medscape Drug Reference

Disclosure: Medscape Salary Employment

Eric L Weiss, MD, DTM&H  Medical Director, Office of Service Continuity and Disaster Planning, Fellowship Director, Stanford University Medical Center Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Chairman, SUMC and LPCH Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Task Force, Clinical Associate Progressor, Department of Surgery (Emergency Medicine), Stanford University Medical Center

Eric L Weiss, MD, DTM&H is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, American Medical Association, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Southeastern Surgical Congress, Southern Association for Oncology, Southern Clinical Neurological Society, and Wilderness Medical Society

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

John D Halamka, MD, MS  Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Chief Information Officer, CareGroup Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School; Attending Physician, Division of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

John D Halamka, MD, MS is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Informatics Association, Phi Beta Kappa, and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

Robert G Darling, MD, FACEP  Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F Edward Hebert School of Medicine; Associate Director, Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine

Robert G Darling, MD, FACEP is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Emergency Physicians, American Medical Association, American Telemedicine Association, and Association of Military Surgeons of the US

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Acknowledgments

The authors and editors of eMedicine gratefully acknowledge the contributions of previous authors, Demetres G Velendzas, MD, and Thomas W McGovern, MD, to the development and writing of this article.

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Wright stain peripheral blood smear of patient with septicemic plague demonstrating bipolar, safety pin staining of Yersinia pestis. While Wright stain often demonstrates this characteristic appearance, Giemsa and Wayson stains most consistently highlight this pattern. Courtesy of Jack Poland, PhD, CDC, Fort Collins, CO.
Here a flea is shown with a blocked proventriculus, equivalent to the gastroesophageal region in man. In nature, this flea would develop a ravenous hunger because of its inability to digest the fibrinoid mass of blood and bacteria. Ensuing a biting of the nearest mammal results in clearing of the proventriculus through regurgitation of thousands of bacteria into the bite wound. Courtesy of United States Army Environmental Hygiene Agency.
A suppurative, bubo of the femoral lymph node (shown here), the most common site of the erythematous, tender, swollen, nodes in a plague victim. The next most common lymph node regions involved are the inguinal, axillary, and cervical areas. The child in the image below has an erythematous, eroded, crusting, necrotic ulcer at the presumed primary inoculation site on the left upper quadrant. This type of lesion is uncommonly found in patients with plague. Bubo location is primarily a function of the region of the body in which an infected flea inoculates plague bacilli. Courtesy of Jack Poland, PhD, CDC, Fort Collins, CO.
A suppurative, bubo of the femoral lymph node, shown in the image above, is the most common site of the erythematous, tender, swollen, nodes in a plague victim. The next most common lymph node regions involved are the inguinal, axillary (shown here), and cervical areas. The child in this photo has an erythematous, eroded, crusting, necrotic ulcer at the presumed primary inoculation site on the left upper quadrant. This type of lesion is uncommonly found in patients with plague. Bubo location is primarily a function of the region of the body in which an infected flea inoculates plague bacilli. Courtesy of Jack Poland, PhD, CDC, Fort Collins, CO.
Ecchymoses at the neck base of a girl with plague. Bandage is over the site of a prior bubo aspirate. These lesions probably gave rise to the title line of the children's nursery rhyme "Ring around the rosy." Courtesy of Jack Poland, PhD, CDC, Fort Collins, CO.
Right-side middle and lower lobe involvement in a patient with plague pneumonia. No chest radiograph pattern is characteristic of plague, but bilateral interstitial infiltrates are most commonly seen. Courtesy of Jack Poland, PhD, CDC, Fort Collins, CO.
Rock squirrel in extremis coughing of blood-streaked sputum of pneumonic plague. Courtesy of Ken Gage, PhD, CDC, Fort Collins, CO.
Acral necrosis of nose, lips, fingers (shown here) and toes (image below) and residual ecchymoses over both forearms in a patient recovering from bubonic plague that disseminated to blood and lungs. At one time, the patient's entire body was ecchymotic. Reprinted from McGovern TW, Friedlander AM. Plague. In: Sidell FR, Takafuji ET, Franz DR, eds. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare. Chapter 23 in: Zajtchuk R, Bellamy RF, eds. Textbook of Military Medicine. Washington, DC: US Department of the Army, Office of the Surgeon General, and Borden Institute; 1997: 493. Government publication, no copyright on photos.
Acral necrosis of nose, lips, fingers (image above) and toes (shown here) and residual ecchymoses over both forearms in a patient recovering from bubonic plague that disseminated to blood and lungs. At one time, the patient's entire body was ecchymotic. Reprinted from McGovern TW, Friedlander AM. Plague. In: Sidell FR, Takafuji ET, Franz DR, eds. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare. Chapter 23 in: Zajtchuk R, Bellamy RF, eds. Textbook of Military Medicine. Washington, DC: US Department of the Army, Office of the Surgeon General, and Borden Institute; 1997: 493. Government publication, no copyright on photos.
Bioterrorist Agents. Signs and symptoms. Chart courtesy of North Carolina Statewide Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology (SPICE), copyright University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, www.unc.edu/depts/spice/bioterrorism.html.
World distribution of plague, 1998. From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Ga.
 
 
 
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