Today the treatments are much easier and are fairly effective. The usual treatment for prevention is dosing the patient with antibiotics such as tetracycline. To treat the disease the usual treatment is streptomycin, gentamicin, tetracycline, and chloramphecol. In the United States, all the plague cases occurred in the southwestern states of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and California. Most of these occur during the months of May to October when people are outdoors and come into contact with rodents and fleas.
Plague is primarily a zoonotic infection.
It is transmitted among the natural animal reservoirs which are predominantly urban and sylvatic rodents, by flea bites, and by ingestion of contaminated animal tissues. Throughout the world, the urban and domestic rats, Rattus rattus and R. morvergicus are the most important reservoirs of the plague bacilli. The most efficient vector for transmission is the oriental rat flea, Xenopsylle cheopis . Humans become accidental hosts in the natural cycle of plague when bitten by infected rodent fleas. In the United States, males and females have been equally effected.