Oscar:
The Chinese and Japanese that died of plague in WWII did so largely because there was no cure. Today there is one, therefore the WWII experience has little, if any, relevance to the situation today.
“Hemorrhagic fever” is a generic term for any fever that also causes bleeding from ruptured blood vessels, usually subdermal resulting in angry-looking spots on the skin (petechaie). Dengue is a hemorrhagic fever, as is yellow fever, ebola and a quantity of others. Their cure and/or treatment depends on which one you’ve got. Dengue and yellow fever are both caused by viruses. We have no cure for any viral disease – none. All we can do is prevent you from getting the individual disease (vaccination) or treat the symptoms if you do get one and hope the body can cure itself. In the case of the bacteria-caused black plague we have several substances (antibiotics) that are poisonous to bacteria but not to humans. Thus we can inject one or more of them, kill the bacteria and not hurt the human. Kill the bacteria and you cure the disease. We have nothing yet that can kill a virus and not its host, therefore no cure.
In the case of a bio-terror attack, unless we have a year’s notice, it is almost certain that we don’t have enough vaccine already in stock to do much, therefore that “cure” (actually a preventative) is not available. That leaves treating the symptoms, preventing a secondary bacterial infection, and hoping for the best. Note, please, modern medicine has come a long way since WWII and such palliative treatment is not to be sneezed at, but me, I’d rather come down with the plague where there is a definite chance of a cure.
