Overview

• Laboratory confirmation is especially important for the first cases in a geographic area, as they will lead to treatment and isolation of additional suspected cases, post- or pre-exposure prophylaxis of those exposed, and other control measures.
• Clinical diagnostic specimens should be collected immediately when you suspect plague and before antibiotics are administered.
• You should make every effort to collect and preserve these specimens so that live bacteria can be observed for species confirmation and characterization.
• Identification of a live isolate confirms the diagnosis and permits determination of the agent’s antimicrobial susceptibility and molecular signature.
• PCR, antigen detection, or other non-viable test methods only provide presumptive identification.