Bubonic Plague
You’ve got to love Wikipedia. It is a one stop shopping on the information super highway. I looked up the bubonic plague and got a whole list of connections. So let’s start learning. The bubonic plague is caused by a bacterium called Pestis Bubonica (sounds like a Latin adult web site). Its primary method of transmission is from flea infested rodents. It is the fleas that actually carry the bacteria. The method of infection is wild. The bacteria multiply in the flea and form a plug that blocks the flea’s stomach. The flea becomes hungry because nutrients are not reaching the intestines for absorption, so the flea gorges itself. The food has nowhere to go and eventually gets vomited up. The vomit mixed with the flea’s blood (tainted with the bacteria) is spewed into the open wound the flea is eating from and the infection is passed on. The flea eventually dies of starvation. Once the rodent population is depleted, the fleas start to look for alternative sources of food and the disease spreads beyond the rodent population.
You start showing signs of Bubonic plague 3 – 7 days after you are infected. The initial symptoms are chills, fever, diarrhea, headaches and swollen lymph nodes. If left untreated, the disease has a 30% - 70% fatality rate. It can be treated with antibiotics and if discovered in time is normally cured.
Our greatest exposure to the bubonic plague was during the middle ages. During the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, the bubonic plague swept through Europe and Asia killing an estimated 75 million people. It was called the Black Death during that time because no one could find the cause of the illness. The first recorded instance of what is thought to be the plague is 541 -542 AD in Constantinople. The city had grown so large that it was importing grain from Egypt and holding it in granaries. It is presumed that the rats thriving on the grain along with their fleas infested fur resulted in the death of up to 5000 citizens per day and 40% mortality in the cities population. Modern outbreaks of the disease occur in remote areas of the world but pandemics are not likely now that the transmission method is known and antibiotics are common place. Got to love modern medicine. Is this where fleabitis (phlebitis) comes from? Probably not, that is varicose veins.
Icool
Cobb
You start showing signs of Bubonic plague 3 – 7 days after you are infected. The initial symptoms are chills, fever, diarrhea, headaches and swollen lymph nodes. If left untreated, the disease has a 30% - 70% fatality rate. It can be treated with antibiotics and if discovered in time is normally cured.
Our greatest exposure to the bubonic plague was during the middle ages. During the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, the bubonic plague swept through Europe and Asia killing an estimated 75 million people. It was called the Black Death during that time because no one could find the cause of the illness. The first recorded instance of what is thought to be the plague is 541 -542 AD in Constantinople. The city had grown so large that it was importing grain from Egypt and holding it in granaries. It is presumed that the rats thriving on the grain along with their fleas infested fur resulted in the death of up to 5000 citizens per day and 40% mortality in the cities population. Modern outbreaks of the disease occur in remote areas of the world but pandemics are not likely now that the transmission method is known and antibiotics are common place. Got to love modern medicine. Is this where fleabitis (phlebitis) comes from? Probably not, that is varicose veins.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
6:27 AM
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