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Treatments and drugs

By Mayo Clinic staff

Treatment for plague includes antibiotics and supportive therapy. Your doctor is required by law to report documented plague infections to local health officials.

Medications
As soon as your doctor suspects that you have plague, you'll need to be admitted to an isolation room in a hospital. There, you'll receive powerful antibiotics directly into your veins (intravenously) or your muscles (intramuscularly) for seven to 10 days. Streptomycin and gentamicin are the most effective drugs against plague. Other alternatives include intravenous doxycycline (Vibramycin) and chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin).

Even if you don't have signs or symptoms, you'll need treatment with preventive, oral antibiotics for seven days after direct exposure to a person with pneumonic plague.

Supportive therapies
If you have serious complications, such as bleeding, organ failure and respiratory distress, then respiratory support, intravenous fluids and oxygen may be necessary.

DS00493

Aug. 30, 2008

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