Yersinia Pestis And The Plague

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

They were the bubonic plague, the pneumonic plague and the septicemic plague. Symptoms of the bubonic plague were: fevers, headaches, painful aching joints, nausea, vomiting and the feeling of malaise. This plague was sadly the most popular plague going around. The mortality rate for bubonic plague was 30% - 75%. 4/5 people who got this plague were dead within 8 days.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the bubonic plague is the most common form of plague known. Where it usually occurs after the bite of an infected flea. The key characteristics of bubonic plague is that an infected person typically comes down with symptoms such as swollen and painful lymph nodes, usually in the groin, armpit or neck areas

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)

Yersenia pestis is the pathogen responsible for different types of plague such as: septicemic plague, pneumonic plague, and the bubonic plague. The purpose of this paper is to inform about the Bubonic Plague so the information given will focus on this type of plague. The plague itself is transmitted in several ways. One of them being rodents spreading it to other animals by the channels of fleas and soil that has been already contaminated. Bubonic Plague can develop from direct contact with an object that is contaminated with sputum that comes belongs to a person suffering from pneumonic plague. However, direct contact with sputum isn’t necessary, a person can be contaminated by inhaling droplets from a patient with primary pneumonic

Plague is an infectious disease that caused by Yesinia Pestis. This bacterium is gram negative-rod shaped- coccobacillus and obligates intracellular pathogen that must contain within the blood to survive. Yesinia is name after Swiss bacteriologist Alexander-Emile- jean Yersin (1863-1943) who identified it in 1894 after his trip to Hong Kong. Human get plague after rodent flea carry the plague bacterium or by animal that infected with this plague. This can causes serious illness or even death if is not treated with antibiotics. This disease also is famous for killing people in 1/3 of Europe. Presently, human plague continues to occur in Western United States but most cases occur in Africa and Asia. Symptoms are depends how the patient exposed

This infectious fever is caused by the bacillus Yersinia Pestis, a bacterium transmitted to humans from rodents through the bite of infected fleas. Today, when someone gets infected it is usually because they were bit or exposed to rodents, such as squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs or scratches or bites from infected domestic cats. When outbreaks occur, and the number of rodents decreases in number due to overpopulation of fleas, the fleas from dead rodents fail to find new hosts, so in order to survive they are forced to infest humans, thus carrying on the disease. The three most common forms of the plague are

Yersinia rod shaped, non-motile or motile by peritrichous flagella, facultative anaerobe that exhibits a bipolar staining with methylene blue, Giemsa, etc. leading to a safety pin (3). Their pathogenicity lies within mainly 3 plasmids namely, pMT1 (Murine toxin), pPCP1 (Pesticin coagulase plasminogen activator) and in some species pYV (Yersinia virulence) (4). The genus Yersinia consists of 19 species. But, this review will only focus on three of them.

In the case of weaponized aerosol release of Yersinia pestis bacteria would cause primary pneumonic plague in the exposed. An infected individual from this attack has the potential to cause a secondary spread from person to person, but would not cause secondary pneumonic plague as the transmission originally occurred in an aerosolized form and would sustain cycles of human transmission (from person to person) independent of secondary zoonotic vectors such as through flea, tick, or rodent bites (Gani, R., & Leach, S., 2004).

Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis), a gram-negative, non-motile facultative intracellular bacterium is responsible for the bubonic plague in humans (Smiley 2008). The bacterium uses the Rodent flea Xenopsylla cheopis as a vector to gain entry into a new host. (Butler 2009). The bacterium forms of an aggregative biofilm on the spicules of the proventriculus in the flea (Butler 2009). This blockage on the proventriculus causes the flea to behave as if it is starving continuously biting and try to feed (Butler 2009). Through this cycle of feeding, the transmission of the infected blood from the flea’s stomach enables the new host to be infected through its skin (Butler 2009).

Yersinia pestis, the culprit behind the infamous Black Death, spread by rat fleas, has cast a shadow over human civilization, taken the lives of countless peasants and nobles alike like a violent brute who murders invariably. There are three major forms of infection stages, the bubonic plague, the septicemic plague, and the pneumonic plague (primary and secondary), all are lethal if not treated with proper antibiotics. Due to similar symptoms, clinical diagnosis, the distinction between a common cold and a lethal infection is made difficult. However, though a potent murderer, Yersinia pestis can be easily eliminated by antibiotic treatment; survivors of the disease

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.

Infectious diseases bring wreckage to some of the poorest and weakest communities in our country along with others. At the time, the Yersinia Pestis disease was only being found in some parts of the world, mainly Africa, Asia, and South America. Today our generation has many repellents that prevent any type of contact with fleas, mosquitos, moths, and more. However, during the mid 1800’s many were not guaranteed such a luxury; it was as simple to catch the disease if individuals were bitten by any type of rodent flea or were handling an animal that just so happened to be infected. Being the fact that rodents and their fleas are constantly involving in a cycle, the Yersinia Disease will maintain their existence in our generation and ones further