Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of the infamous bubonic plague, primary septicaemic plague, and primary pneumonic plague. Y. pestis was first discovered by Shibasaburo Kitasato and Alexandre Yersin, but due to Yersin’s description of the bacteria being more accurate, this bacterium was named after him (3). There are still disputes going on for who had correctly identified Y. pestis first. Yersinia pestis belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae bacteria family and is a Gram-negative coccobacillus. It is a non-motile, non-spore forming, facultative anaerobic bacillus that displays bipolar staining with Giemsa, Wayson, or Wright’s staining (2,3,4). Y. pestis grows optimally at 28°C but can grow at 37°C (human hosts). At the latter temperature, different plasmids are expressed to allow it to survive in those conditions, one of them being fraction 1 (F1), a protein capsule (at 28°C, the bacteria does not have a capsule) (5). Transmission of Y. pestis is primarily zoonotic with occasional droplet by aerosol transmission. It normally infects rodents, with humans being accidental hosts. There are at least 73 different genera of mammals and 30 species of fleas that act as reservoirs in nature (2). Humans do not get infected directly by rodents, but rather by intermediate hosts: fleas. The fleas get infected when they ingest blood of an infected animal. The bacteria produce a coagulase that forms a blood clot in the flea, which inhibits them from swallowing. In the flea, they
(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 killed over twenty-five million people during the Elizabethan Era (David Perlin, PhD and Ann Cohen). “The origins of the Black Death can be traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320’s (Ed. Geoffrey J. et al).” The Bubonic Plague has picked up many nicknames. For example, it has been called “The Black Death,” and “one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse” (Ed. Geoffrey J. et al). The Bubonic Plague was very prominent during its time with many people’s lives being affected by the treatments, preventions, and twisted theories that occurred.
The roots of this fearsome plague are very chilling to think about knowing that a mere flea can be the cause of the bubonic plagues epidemic. The more specific medical or scientific term for this disease is Yersinia Pestis. This was named after the doctor, Alexandre Yersin, who isolated the bacteria in 1894 during the pandemic that began in China in the 1860’s. The earliest traces of Y Pestis can be found all the way back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320’s. The cause of the sudden eruption is yet to be solved but the earliest major toll it has taken in our history books is in China in the 1330’s during the expansion of trade in the middle and high
End of a Paradigm, Samuel K. Cohn Jr. argues that the Black Death of 14th century Europe was not the same illness as the bubonic plague. To help illustrate his argument, Cohn compared the Black Death of 14th century Europe to the agent of the bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, which was discovered in Hong Kong
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
Bubonic Plague/ Black Death Topic Questions: ( The stuff in colors isn’t plagiarism) What was the Bubonic Plague? The bubonic Plague is a plague spread by infected fleas. The poisoned fleas feed on their hosts, then spit the blood back onto the wound on the animal (such as the rats that spread the Plague during the London Elizabethan Era).
The Bubonic plague has been said to be a part of history since the biblical eras and has had an undeniable effect on the development of contemporary civilization Gowen, B.S. (1907). The cause of the plague is not known. However, there is religious reference of God punishing sinners causing death and destruction using this deadly disease. Throughout the years, there has been a question to be answered by historians and medical professionals. This question is: if the destructive attributes of the disease was an act of God to punish sinners or an act of nature? Today, historians believe that the existence of germs, given suitable soil conditions, mass-produced the disease.
Middle English recipes are a secondary source. It is secondary source because it was not originated in Europe it was originated in India but translated into modern English.
Yersinia Pestis, an infectious agent is the cause of the Bubonic Plague. Yersina Pestis is a bacteria, which means the cells lack the internal organization of eukaryotic cells. These bacteria cells would contain the membrane but they would not be able to subdivide the inside of the cell. These bacteria cells do not have a nucleus so instead they have a nucleiod that contains genetic material. The two types of bacteria cells are gram-negative and gram-positive. Yersina Pestis is gram negative and that means that antibiotics are less effective on the plague because of a lipopolysaccharide layer over their walls that adds extra protection.
Between 1315 and 1317, crop s failed and created the greatest famine in the Middle Ages
The Bubonic Plague or Black Plague devastated Europe in the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries killing anywhere from twenty to twenty-five million people or about one-third of the continent’s population. At the time, medical knowledge was not competent for understanding why the deadly pathogen was spreading; therefore, the plague radiated like wildfire. The Europeans believed that the plague was a sort of divine punishment for the sins in which they had committed, and they had no idea there was a scientific explanation for the epidemic. Among the masses affected by the calamitous plague, there was a broad spectrum of responses in which the Europeans took part. Three major responses that were most apparent in the
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)
How the disease was transmitted was further looked on by Nelson (1995). According to the said author, the disease was transmitted primarily by fleas and rats. The stomachs of the fleas were infected with bacteria known Y. Pestis. Nelson held that “the bacteria would block the "throat" of infected fleas so that no blood could reach their stomachs, and they grew ravenous since they were starving to death” (1995, par. 14). The bacteria would then attempt to suck up blood from their victims, only to disgorge it back into their preys' bloodstreams (Nelson, 1995). Now, however, the victims' blood was mixed with Y. Pestis. Fleas infected rats in this fashion, and the rats spread the disease to other rats and fleas before dying (Nelson, 1995). Without rodent hosts, the fleas then migrated to the bodies of humans and infected them in the same fashion as they had the rats .
Bacteria called Yersinia pestis caused the Bubonic plague. It was the cause for some of the wicked symptoms that normally showed within one to seven days. Some of the symptoms were general illness such as vomiting, fevers around 101-105 degrees, headaches and the enlargement of the lymph nodes in the areas