Yersinia Pestis Disease

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

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

"Plague”. “Best known as bubonic plague for the "buboes" (lumps) that formed on the victims'

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 first major European outbreak of the plague occurred 1347 in Italy. The plague is a bacterium carried by fleas. It likely originated in Asia, but shipboard rats carried diseased fleas to Europe where the densely populated and unsanitary conditions made it catastrophic. The most common bubonic plague results in dark colored buboes (swollen lymph glands in the armpits and groin). These black or dark spots led to the name Black Death because most people who had the swollen dark spots died. The medicine available to people during this time was of no affect. In fact in his popular book, In The Wake of The

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

In the lymphatic system, the lymph nodes acts as filters, catching substances harmful to the body, like toxins, bacteria, cancer cells, and viruses. The plague directly targeted this form of defense. The plague has three forms of infection, based on how the bacteria were transmitted to the individual. These forms are bubonic, septicaemic and pneumonic. The Bubonic form was the most common, especially during the 14th century; this form of the plague came directly from flea bites. With the Bubonic plague, the bacteria travel to the lymph nodes where it begins to multiply. The lymph node begins to become inflamed. The swollen lymph nodes are called “buboes”. The swollen nodes soon begin to cause sores, and if left untreated, the Bubonic plague can turn into the septicaemic form. The septicaemic form is a result of the Y. pestis entering the bloodstream. Since the bacteria are overwhelming the lymph nodes, and causing them to swell, the immune system is compromised. Individuals with the septicaemic form of the plague suffer with a high fever and eventually die of multiple organ failure. The last and most fatal form of the plague is the pneumonic plague. When infected with the pneumonic plague, the individuals develop a cough due to high levels of mucus buildup in the lungs, about 99% of those who contract this form die. Although the disease is fatal if left untreated, there is

Plague, was a term that was applied in the Middle Ages to all fatal epidemic diseases, but now it is only applied to an acute, infectious, contagious disease of rodents and humans, caused by a short, thin, gram-negative bacillus. In humans, plague occurs in three forms: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. The best known form is the bubonic plague and it is named after buboes, or enlarged, inflamed lymph nodes, which are characteristics of the plague in the groin or neck or armpit. Bubonic plague can only be transmitted by the bite of any of numerous insects that are normally parasitic on rodents and that seek new hosts when the original host dies. If the plague is left untreated

The cause of the outbreak of the plague was initially unknown, and it was not until 1899 that it was discovered to have come from a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis. This bacteria lived in the digestive system of fleas, who in turned lived on rats. When these fleas bit people, the bacteria would enter the bloodstream. Other ways the disease spread was airborne; coughing, sneezing, even breathing. (Ollhoff 10). Sometime around

The Middle Ages were a very dark time, education became very unimportant and people were forced to live in very close quarters and, consequently, hygiene was atrocious and it made the perfect place for Yersinia Pestis to thrive. Yersinia Pestis is the virus responsible for the Black Death, a deadly disease that rapidly powered through Europe, killing nearly everyone in its way. The Black Death had many gruesome and scary symptoms that made bystanders sick just watching. Some people were more likely to get the Black Death than others. Because peasants had worse living conditions than the nobility, they were far more likely to catch the Plague. The history of the Plague and its track is very surprising to most people and when you see just how

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.

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 great plague came in three different forms. The types of illness differed in symptoms, spread and sufferings. The bubonic plague was the diseases most common form. It was named this due to swelling called “buboes” of the victim’s lymph nodes. “These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple” (The Black Death). The longest expectancy with this form of illness didn’t often exceed one week. The second variation of plague was known as the “pneumatic

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