Zoonotic Diseases and Risk Factors

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

Imagine going back in time to witness the Black Death that struggled Europe in the 14th century. The Black Death originated in China because China was huge on trading, eventually reaching Europe about 20 years later through trade routes. According to Source 1, the Black Death was a combination of three plagues: bubonic, killing cells and attacking the nervous system, forming black bumps appear on the body, pneumonic which causes a person to cough, spreading the plague and a high fever, causing the person to go in a coma, septicemic which goes directly in the bloodstream, causing a rash. Rats carried a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Fleas bit rats, carrying the bacteria, then biting humans, causing the plague. Once the disease was contracted,

Zoonotic Diseases can be cause by many things like viruses, and bacteria. CDC and prevention stated that scientists appraised that more than 6 out of every 10 infectious diseases in humans are spread

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

The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the “unholy trinity” (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried).

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 Bubonic Plague or ‘Black Death’ is a highly infectious and potentially fatal disease that spread rapidly throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. The disease carrying Bacterium, Yersinia pestis, caused millions of deaths in the 1300s due to its highly contagious nature. Many people contracted the Bubonic Plague from bacteria carrying fleas, which carried the plague bacteria from an infected rodent (A.D.A.M, 2015). This particular disease isn’t usually spread from person to person, but instead through small rodents and animals that carry infected fleas, many people became infected from flea bites or direct contact with the infected skin or fluids of an animal, (Rare Diseases, 2014) However, according to some credible scientists, it is believed

The bacteria found in the Black Plague is known as Yersinia pestis that is a bipolar and plump, lightly-staining, coccobacillus. Remaining a dangerous threat even today as well as what was previously stated that it is a plausible agent for bioterrorism. And as stated, areas such as America, Asia, and Africa are foci endemic areas. Where wild rodents, such as squirrels and rats, are the sustenance pushing for the spread and infection of the disease. The transmission being from animal-to-animal through fleas and infection to humans through contact or bites. Instances of human-to-human infection are uncommon except for the pneumonic plague, the disease caused by plague bacillus also known as Y pestis. The germ was named after Alexander Yersin who had discovered it in 1894 during a pandemic in China that started in1860. Causing numerous casualties by how fast and effective the disease was spreading, it had seemed that there was no end in

As another worry, certain animals carry diseases. These diseases can get others sick. Source #3 states, “Different animals carry certain diseases. When animals go into public places, they

The bacteria Yersinia Pestis is the cause of the black plague. Y. Pestis was discovered by Alexandre Yersin in 1849. The plague was the cause of one of the world's most horrific epidemics in the entire world. The plague is an infectious disease that first appeared in 1347 in China and made its way to Asia and then the Black Sea. The Black Plague has caused death to about 75 million lives. The plague is a deadly bacterial infection that can cause death if left untreated. The plague got its name the “Black Death” due to the fact that this disease caused black boils on the skin and that its victims were always on the verge of death when seen. The Plague would then soon arrive in Europe

Interdisciplinary work is crucial for tackling NTDs because it provides various areas of study to enact and treat tropical diseases, while also considering other perspectives. In the video "The One Health Initiative", it is mentioned that infectious diseases are zoonotic, foodborne, vectorborne, and waterborne. With these diseases emerging from varying sources, it is essential to have support for all areas of tropical disease. The speaker in The One Health Initiative video also cited the 2008 ASM meeting, where the disciplines of veterinary practice and human health found many connecting links in diseases between animals and humans. I believe that different educational backgrounds that treat already diseases have much more power in union, than

This is not only a problem that affects the United States. Many other countries like Australia and Canada have seen the error in the ways of zoos and have tried to fix them.

It appears that zoonosis has added another means of infecting humans to its arsenal. A veterinarian at a New York City animal shelter where cats were infected with a strain of bird flu was also infected by the strain of flu that the cats had. As we all know zoonosis is a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals. In this case it was the cats housed in the shelter. Fortunately, as reported by the New York City health department, only the veterinarian was infected. The vet only had a mild illness from the virus, called H7N2. "More than 160 Animal Care Centers of NYC employees and volunteers, including several people who had similar exposure to sick cats, were screened by the Health Department and not found to have an infection with the H7N2 virus,"

Even though both are almost equally contaminated since there is no significant difference the risk can be eliminated by cooking the meat. Cooking the meat to safe temperatures and until it is completely cooked is one way to eliminate the risk. The end product will be chicken that meets safe standards for consumption regardless of it was organic or not.