Treatment may include streptomycin, gentamicin or tetracycline for which disease?

Treatment may include streptomycin, gentamicin or tetracycline for which disease?

• A. Smallpox
• B. Anthrax
• C. Plague
• D. Botulism

Answer: (C)

Streptomycin, gentamicin, and tetracycline are antibiotics traditionally used to treat plague caused by Yersinia pestis. They combat the infection by inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis, which helps control the illness in both bubonic and pneumonic forms, with prompt therapy being crucial for pneumonic plague. The other diseases listed are not treated this way: smallpox is viral, so antibiotics don’t cure it; botulism is toxin-mediated, and antibiotics don’t neutralize the toxin (though they may be used in some wound botulism cases); and anthrax is typically treated with fluoroquinolones or doxycycline, not primarily with this combination.

Streptomycin, gentamicin, and tetracycline are antibiotics traditionally used to treat plague caused by Yersinia pestis. They combat the infection by inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis, which helps control the illness in both bubonic and pneumonic forms, with prompt therapy being crucial for pneumonic plague. The other diseases listed are not treated this way: smallpox is viral, so antibiotics don’t cure it; botulism is toxin-mediated, and antibiotics don’t neutralize the toxin (though they may be used in some wound botulism cases); and anthrax is typically treated with fluoroquinolones or doxycycline, not primarily with this combination.