One of the worst infectious disease outbreaks in history is the plague. It belongs to the group of particularly dangerous quarantine infections. The three most common forms of plague are bubonic, septic and pulmonary. The causative microorganism is a gram-negative polymorphic stationary bacterium Yersinia pestis of the Enterobacteriaceae family of the genus Yersinia (Alfani, 2020). It is highly resistant in the external environment and survives in various substrates from 30 days to 6-7 months (Alfani, 2020). In a modern laboratory today, this organization would be identified by microscopic examination. The smears taken from the contents of the bubo are fixed by immersion completely in the Inpiforov liquid for 20 minutes (Alfani, 2020). The type of specimen to be studied may also include separable ulcers or punctate from the carbuncle in the cutaneous form of plague and material from the pharynx taken with a swab, and sputum in the pulmonary form of plague.
Sectional material (pieces of cadaver organs, blood), live rodents, their corpses and fleas can be used as a specimen. The exact test that would be used for preliminary identification is smear staining with Leffler’s methylene blue, as this method better detects bipolarity (Alfani, 2020). The exact test that would be used for final identification is a bacteriological study during which crops of the test material are produced on agar by the addition of growth stimulants such as blood or sodium sulfite. In cases of suspicion of the presence of a bacteriophage, the crops would be treated with an anti-phage serum. The appropriate treatments that are available today include co-trimoxazole in the cutaneous form and chloramphenicol with streptomycin intravenously; additionally, tetracycline antibiotics are used.
Reference
Alfani, G. (2020). Pandemics and asymmetric shocks: Evidence from the history of plague in europe and the mediterranean. Journal for the History of Environment and Society, 5(1), 197–209.