g. Prevention and Control Measures Applicable to the Source.
(1) Isolation of patients.
Patients should be kept in separate rooms (where possible) in a
building devoted solely to the treatment of plague patients.
All except necessary attendants should be excluded.
Contact between suspects and manifest pneumonic cases must not
be allowed.
In pneumonic or suspected pneumonic cases, attendants must wear:
-- Hoods with goggles or plastic eye openings.
-- Coveralls or complete gown with trousers.
-- Rubber gloves.
All waste articles contaminated by discharges are to be incinerated.
Used bedding and other fomites should be autoclaved or boiled.
After a room is vacated, the walls, floor, and furniture should be
disinfected by washing with a suitable potent disinfectant solution.
(2) Rodent control--sylvatic plague. Sylvatic plague is flea-borne plague
among wild rodents caused by Y. pestis. It occurs as an epizootic (animal epidemic)
disease not only among wild rats but also among ground squirrels, marmots, rabbits,
and other rodents that do not ordinarily live in close association with man.
(3) Source of plague in humans. Plague may be the source of sporadic
human infections and may be introduced into the domestic rat population of cities, and
then, rat plague epizootics and human plague epidemics may occur.
The rat population in endemic areas should be observed closely.
Any increase in rodent plague should dictate the intensification of
rodent control measures.
(4) Rodent control in the event of human plague.
When human plague is discovered, the perimeter of the disease in
the rodent population should be determined by trapping in every direction from the focus
of human infection until no additional infected animals are found.
MD0152
5-40