Question

The drug of choice for chemoprophylaxis in contacts of a patient of pneumonic plague is:

• A. Penicillin
• B. Rifampicin
• C. Erythromycin
• D. Tetracycline

Hint:

Tetracycline (or doxycycline) is standard prophylaxis for plague contacts.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

This question is about the prophylactic drug given to people who have been near a pneumonic plague patient, before they show any symptoms themselves.

1. Penicillin: Yersinia pestis, the plague bacterium, does not respond well to penicillin, so it is not used here.
2. Rifampicin: This drug is kept for prophylaxis in other diseases, such as contacts of meningococcal meningitis, not for plague.
3. Erythromycin: Not the standard agent recommended for plague prophylaxis.
4. Tetracycline: This drug, and related ones like doxycycline, work well against Yersinia pestis and are the recommended short course for contacts of a pneumonic plague case.

Because pneumonic plague spreads through droplets from coughing and can progress quickly, close contacts are given a brief course of tetracycline to prevent them from developing the disease.

Let's summarize:

• Yersinia pestis responds well to tetracycline class drugs.
• Tetracycline is used both to treat plague and to protect exposed contacts.

So the correct answer is tetracycline.