The Plague is an infectious disease caused by a strain of bacteria called Yersinia pestis. These bacteria are mainly present in rodents, particularly rats, and the fleas that feed on them. Other animals and humans usually contract the bacteria from rodents or flea bites or by eating an infected animal. Bubonic plague infects your lymphatic system (the immune system), initiating inflammation. If left untreated, it can move into the blood and cause the septicemic plague, or it can move to the lungs and cause the pneumonic plague (the most deadly form of the plague.) .The most common form of the plague (Bubonic Plague) is not contagious. However, the pneumonic plague is highly contagious. The Plague develops rapidly; therefore, it may lead to
(MIP-1) The black plague swept through the medieval times causing utter chaos and fear. (SIP-A) The thing everyone had on their minds when the plague hit was death, but what truly was the plague that took everyone by storm ? The plague was a disease that was extremely contagious that spread from person to person as quick as wildfire. (STEWE-1) In Europe of 1347 millions of people were in shock by the visit of the black plague (Konstam 118). The black plague all started when it first rose in the early 1300’s in Central Asia. It arrived in Europe when trading ships from Central Asia with people infected with the plague came aboard (“The Black Death").The black plague also called the the black death was spread by a disease causing bacterium named Yersina Pestis
The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is considered one of the most lethal in history. Recorded pandemics of the plague reach back to 541 A.D. and minor epidemics can still be found around the world (Plague). The plague consists of a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. This bacterium has the ability to mutate quickly and can easily destroy the immune system of the infected person, “it does this by injecting toxins into defense cells such as macrophages that are tasked with detecting bacterial infections. Once these cells are knocked out, the bacteria can multiply unhindered.” (Plague) The bubonic plague has a number of symptoms ranging from a headache to seizures. The most distinguishable
I was observing the spread of the plague right before my eyes. I knew how the three types of plague were transmitted but the humans did not. The three types were the Bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic plague. The Bubonic plague was the most common plague in medieval Europe. It was transmitted by infected fleas that were carried by rats, when the rat died the flea would jump to a human to feed from their blood. The human bitten by the flea, was then infected and faced certain death, the flea would then find a new human to feed off. The Pneumonic plague, being the second most common type in medieval Europe, was far more deadly and contagious than the Bubonic plague. The Plague would attack a human's respiratory system and was spread through the air by a victim's cough. The last type of plague was the Septicemic, it was the rarest and deadliest form of the Black Death. The Septicemic plague was also spread by fleas, like the Bubonic plague, but moved directly to a human's
What is the plague? The plague or referred to as the Black Death, according to the CDC (2015), “is a disease that affects humans and other mammals and caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Humans usually get plague after being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium or by handling an animal infected with plague”. There are three categories of a plague. There is the bubonic plague, which is the most common form. With this form bacteria infects the lymph system and causes it to become inflamed. Symptoms of this type of plague are fever, headache, chills, and swollen and tender lymph nodes, which are called buboes. Then there is the Septicemic, which occurs when the bacteria multiply in the blood. Symptoms of this type of plague are fever, chills, extreme weakness, abdominal pain, shock, and possibly bleeding into the skin and other organs. Also, skin and other tissues may turn black and die, especially fingers, toes and the nose (CDC, 2015). Then there is the Pneumonic Plague, which is the most serious form of plague and occurs when Y. pestis bacteria infect the lungs and cause pneumonia (NIH, 2015). This is the only form of the plague that can be transmitted human to human. Symptoms of this form of the plague are ever, headache, weakness, and a rapidly
Usually, you can get bubonic plague from the bite of an infected flea or rodent. In other cases, from a piece of contaminated clothing or other material used by a person with plague, enter the body through an opening in the skin. At first, the Black Plague developed from “Yersinia Pestis” wasn’t deadly. Over time, it evolved into a fatal disease that wiped out 30 to 60% of Europe’s population.
It was a type of plague that was spread via the bite of infected rat fleas. The initial cause of the plague was diseased rats, with the bacteria Yersinia pestis, in their bloodstream as seen in source 1. Fleas lived on rats and when a flea bit the infected rat, the bacteria would enter the fleas stomach and multiply as seen in source 1. Due to the sudden decrease in the rat population (from disease), many fleas needed a better source of food, so they jumped onto people and bit them. This in turn is how people caught the plague. In the 1320’s a great famine broke out in china, and this caused many rats to die, also resulting in the quick spread of the plague. The name black death came from the swollen buboes (glands) in the victim’s neck, arm pit, and inner thigh that turned black as they filled with blood. Victims often died within 12 hours to 7 days of being bitten. Due to lack of hygiene and living in close, dirty and crowded proximity, rats were very common, making the disease easily contagious. The black death was a combination of three different streams of plague – bubonic, pneumonic and septicaemic. The bubonic plague was the most common form of the plague and was caused by infected fleas biting people. As seen in source 2, sufferers would have large lumps covering their body, as well as have a fever or headache. Soon after the victim would have slurred speech and vomit blood. Pneumonic was deadly
The cause of the Bubonic Plague was by a living host that transport from one animal to another animal, which is called a vector-borne illness. A Xenopsylla Cheopis, an oriental rat flea, was the vector. When the flea bites, the wound is injected by infected blood and the body’s natural response to inflammatory decreases. The bacteria travels using white blood cells to find the closes lymph node, then spreads and multiplies. Lymph nodes are important because they carry fluids, waste material and nutrients to body tissues and the bloodstream. If they swell up, they can’t filter out the bad bacteria in the body. In the first few days of catching the plague, a person experiences large swelling in the lymph nodes which causes the body immune to
The plague was caused by bacteria known as Yersinia pestis and was common in rodent populations (“Ecology and Transmission”). When rodents, such as rats, became infected and began to die off, the fleas who were once feeding off of them needed to find a new host. During Medieval times rats lived in close quarters with humans, even infesting their ships. This neighboring proximity made it easy for fleas to carry the disease to humans (Benedictow). Not only could the plague be transmitted through a flea bite, but exposure to contaminated body fluids and tissues, such as feces and blood, could cause infection. Once a human was infected, they could transmit it through coughs and sneezing, although more rare (“Ecology and
5. How does one individual get/receive this disease? One can get the Bubonic Plague when you are bitten by Yersinia Pestis flea or a Yersinia pestis infected rodent. One can also get the Bubonic Plague through a piece of contaminated clothing or any other material which was used by a person with the Bubonic Plague. The contaminated object must touch an opening area in one’s skin, but this happens in rare cases.
A plague is a bacterial infection that can take on more than one form. One of the greatest plagues that have stricken mankind throughout history was the Black Death. The Black Death was the outbreak of the bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area between 1347 and 1351. This plague was the most severe plague that hit the earth because of its origin (the spread), the symptoms, and the effects of the plague.
plague in and of itself is a bacterium called yersinia pestis and is carried by rodents (Scogna).
Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is spread by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. These bacteria remain in a dormant state primarily in a rat flea’s foregut. Once the flea has bitten a victim it regurgitates the contents in its foregut into the bite location. Once the bacterium has entered into a mammal’s warm body it begins to reproduce and spread throughout the mammal’s body. The reproduction of this bacterium creates large painful swollen lymph nodes which are called buboes. Once these buboes get large enough they begin to ooze infected body fluid so that any contact between an infected person and a healthy person will facilitate the spread of this disease. (The Mayo Clinic Staff, 2012)
The Pneumonic plague occurs when the bubonic plague is left untreated. It is a severe lung infection that is also caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The Yersinia pestis bacteria is carried by
There are three types of plague disease and each one of them has different symptoms. The first type of plague disease, the most popular type of disease, called Bubonic plague. According to Patient Care & Health Information in Mayo Clinic, its symptoms start to appear with less than 10 days after someone got bitten by an infected flea. The symptoms start with buboes, swollen lymph nodes, appear in some places in the body like neck, groin, or armpit. Also, buboes’ size is almost like a chicken egg size. A headache, muscle ache, chills and fever are the other sings of this type of disease (2015). The other type of plague disease is a result of plague bacteria multiplies in the blood which known as Septicemic plague. According to CDC, shock,
The Bubonic Plague and a variation called the septicemic plague was spread throughout Europe by oriental rats that carried infected fleas. Little is known to why the infection never seemed to affect the carrier rats. Infected fleas were being starved by the infection, so they began feasting upon the people they came into contact with. These fleas coming into contact with any human being would infect the human with the disease. These people were now carriers of the Bubonic plague or Black Death. These infected people would then spread the disease by coughing or coming into direct contact with another human being. However, this disease, since not being transmitted via rat would now be called the Pneumonic Plague. (www.insecta-inspecta.com).