The main ways of transmission of plague are

Rats are an important medium for spreading plague, which is a highly contagious disease with extremely high harmful effects. Once an outbreak occurs, it is large-scale and has a very high mortality rate. As our rat eradication operations continued, the plague was well suppressed. However, the plague still exists, and we need to know the main transmission routes of the plague so that we can better prevent it. So, what are the main ways plague is transmitted?

How is plague spread?

1. There are several indirect transmission methods:

(1) House rats → House rat fleas → Humans;

(2) Human → human flea → human (pneumonic plague, pharyngeal plague, tonsillar plague);

(3) Human→Human (pneumonic plague, pharyngeal plague, tonsillar plague);

(4) Wild rat → wild rat flea → house rat → house rat flea → human;

(5) Wild rat flea → Semi-domestic rat flea → House rat flea → Human;

(6) Wild rat → wild rat flea → human;

(7) Wild rats → humans (direct contact with dead animals in the wild);

(8) Wild rats → domestic and wild carnivores → humans;

(9) Wild rats → livestock grazing in the wild → humans (contacting and slaughtering sick livestock).

2. Direct contact People can be infected through direct contact with the contaminated secretions and excretions of plague-infected animals, vector insects, plague patients and their corpses. One common direct contact infection is when people hunt or skin marmots. At this time, the plague bacteria mainly enter the human body through skin wounds, mucous membranes or flea bites, resulting in bubonic plague, while other types are rare.

3. Droplet transmission: Patients with primary pneumonic plague can spread the plague among humans through droplets such as breathing, talking, coughing, and sneezing. The significance of vector insects as a source of infection is mainly through the bites of infected fleas. Other blood-sucking insects such as hard ticks, bedbugs, and lice can carry plague bacteria under natural conditions, but fleas are the main ones.

Plague can be spread by air or contact

1. Strictly control the source of infection

1. When managing patients, if a suspected or confirmed patient is found, it should be reported immediately as an emergency epidemic. At the same time, the patient should be strictly isolated, and visitors and exchanges between patients are prohibited. The patient's excrement should be thoroughly disinfected, and the patient's death should be cremated or buried deep. Contact persons should be quarantined for 9 days, and for those who have been vaccinated, the quarantine period should be extended to 12 days.

2. Eliminate animal sources of infection, conduct epidemic monitoring in natural epidemic areas, and control plague among rodents. Carry out extensive patriotic health campaigns to eliminate rats. Marmots are an important source of infection in some areas and should be hunted vigorously.

3. Cut off the transmission route

1. Fleas must be eradicated thoroughly, and cats, dogs, livestock, etc. must also be sprayed with pesticides.

2. Strengthen transportation and quarantine. Foreign ships, vehicles, aircraft, etc. from the epidemic source should be subject to strict border health quarantine, and rat and flea extermination and disinfection should be implemented, and passengers should be isolated and inspected.

3. Protecting vulnerable people

1. Vaccination: When the disease begins to spread among rats, residents in the epidemic area and its surrounding areas, as well as staff entering the epidemic area, should be vaccinated. The commonly used method is the dry live bacterial vaccine of EV avirulent strain, which is inoculated by skin scratch method, that is, 2 drops of bacterial liquid, 3-4cm apart. Immunity is obtained after 2 weeks. It is usually administered once a year and again after 6 months if necessary. The newly developed 06173 vaccine in my country produces F1 antibodies after immunizing animals, which is 1 times more effective than the EV strain.

2. Personal protection: Medical personnel entering the epidemic area must be vaccinated and can only enter the epidemic area two weeks later. When working, you must wear protective clothing, masks, hats, gloves, glasses, rubber shoes and isolation gowns. After contact with the patient, you can take one of the following drugs for prevention: tetracycline 2g per day, divided into 4 doses; sulfadiazine 2g per day, divided into 4 doses; or streptomycin 1g per day, divided into 1 to 2 intramuscular injections, for 6 consecutive days.