Bubonic plague
Sudden fever, chills, headache and weakness, with one or more visibly swollen and painful lymph nodes.
PLAGUE GUIDE / SYMPTOMS
Symptoms depend on where the infection takes hold.
Plague can worsen quickly. Seek local medical care immediately when compatible symptoms follow a possible exposure.
Pneumonic plague
Symptoms may develop rapidly and include fever, severe breathing difficulty, chest pain and cough, sometimes with bloody sputum.
Septicaemic plague
Fever, extreme weakness, abdominal pain, shock and bleeding into skin or other organs; tissue may become necrotic.
Symptoms alone cannot confirm plague
Fever, cough and swollen lymph nodes can have many other causes. Clinicians combine exposure history, examination and laboratory testing. When plague is suspected, treatment should not wait for final laboratory confirmation.