1
Physiology & Medicine / What are the chances of surviving pneumonic plague without antibiotics?
« on: 02/10/2018 11:13:04 »
Saw a TV show episode once with an interesting plot -- weaponized bioengineered pneumonic plague. This nasty bug was engineered to be antibiotic-resistant, and of course one of the main characters was exposed. They knew immediately what it was, and he got into decontam right away, but still caught the disease. In the show, he survived, barely, and I started wondering how realistic that was.
I know pneumonic plague has basically a 100% fatality rate without antibiotics in the real world, but that's considering that people either don't get treatment because it's not diagnosed fast enough, or because there isn't sufficient medical support in their area. Also, most cases like this occur in rural, poverty-stricken environments where the victim is generally not in the best health to begin with.
So, hypothetically, if a very healthy man in his 30s contracts pneumonic plague, and is immediately treated with everything modern medicine can provide *except* antibiotics, does he have a chance to survive? What do y'all think?
I know pneumonic plague has basically a 100% fatality rate without antibiotics in the real world, but that's considering that people either don't get treatment because it's not diagnosed fast enough, or because there isn't sufficient medical support in their area. Also, most cases like this occur in rural, poverty-stricken environments where the victim is generally not in the best health to begin with.
So, hypothetically, if a very healthy man in his 30s contracts pneumonic plague, and is immediately treated with everything modern medicine can provide *except* antibiotics, does he have a chance to survive? What do y'all think?