Antibiotics Made Plague Highly Treatable

The bacterium that caused the Black Death in medieval Europe still infects people today, but modern antibiotics cure most cases when doctors begin treatment quickly. Treatment has lowered the mortality rate to approximately 11 percent. Without immediate treatment, bubonic plague can kill up to 60 percent of patients and spread into the bloodstream or lungs. Only a few thousand cases occur worldwide each year, allowing health authorities to contain outbreaks before they become pandemics.

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