Yesinia 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

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

Plagues are basically diseases that meant to kill all humans that came in contact with. Talking about famous plagues, it reminds me of the black plague also called the bubonic plague in the 1300s that took the lives of millions in Europe, the great plague of London that was caused by some kind of rat infestation infecting the food and the plague in China's Yunnan province that also spread to India also killing millions of people. I am not sure what other plagues I have missed as I may not have heard about them. Several research questions that capture the most interests in my topic are as follows (according to table 1.1):

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

The Great Plague of 1665 in London killed eight thousand people a week at its peak. Surgeons lanced buboes in an ineffective attempt to rid the body of bad humors (The Great Plague). Yersinia pestis lives in fleas on many types of rodent species. The rodents serve as long-term reservoirs for the bacteria without the rodents experiencing excessive die-off. Dogs and cats can host fleas infected with Yerisina pestis (Ecology). This makes the plague a zoonotic disease. The way the bacterium was transmitted in London was by the bites of infected fleas. Other animals can become infected by fleas that traveled from another host. Epizootic infections are then transferred to humans according to the Center for Disease Control. In 1666 London had a fire and the city was cleaned and better sewer systems were built. These improvements reduced the number of rats and ended the

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

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

Now, what was the plague? It wasn’t just one disease, it was a combination of three bacterial strains: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. If you got it, the least dangerous was the bubonic. You would get a high fever, chills, buboes, rapid heartbeat and vomiting, within 3 to 6 days of having this, up to 50-80% of the victims died. Pneumonic, which was less common, infected the respiratory system and killed almost all its victims taking only hours to do so. Last, was septicemic, this type infected the bloodstream, which ended up killing all who got it. But, either way, whichever form you got you would still end up dying. And although this happened in the 14th century, this was not the first time the plague had gone around. It went to Europe in the 18th century and into Africa and Asia the 20th century.

The Bubonic Plague was likely the first semi-global pandemic that rightfully merits the name which means affecting all people. The period of time in which the disease wreaked havoc was also known as the “Black Death." Alexandere Yersin was a French bacteriologist and discovered the bacteria in Hong Kong This diabolical disease is characterized by both positive and negative outcomes for the few people that managed to survive the plague. The total number of people who died subsequently of the disease are not known. The total number of deaths ranged from twenty to fifty million people. Many, grotesque, unpleasant characteristics are associated with the Black plague. Scientists now understand that the Black Death was spread by a bacillus known as Yersina Pestis. The dominant carrier of the disease was the "black" rat. Other rodents located in central Asia could have also contributed to the disease spreading. A French biologist discovered the germ during the nineteenth century. Recently Dr. Jahannes Krause has been able to do some "molecular fishing" and extract the remaining plague fragments, and DNA from the tooth enamel of excavated remains from the 1300 's. There are three types of the infection. The manifest through buboes (boils) with unpleasant smelling odors, and spots on the skin. Swollen, inflamed lymph nodes in the armpits and groin would appear. The lymphatic system is a major contributing factor to one 's immune system and general health condition.

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).

The Great Plague was an outbreak that killed a third of population in Europe. It was a scourge that originated in the arid plains of central Asia and traveled along the Silk Road. From then on, fleas living on rats, which were typically found on merchant ships, carried it. There were three types of the plague: bubonic plague, this was an infection of the lymph glands and

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)

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,

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