The Bubonic Plague
What is it?
The Bubonic Plague is the most common out of three types of bacterial
infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, and the name Bubonic
Plague is specific for the form of the disease where it enters through the skin
and travels through the lymphatic system.
Symptoms of the Bubonic Plague include fever, spots on the skin that are red
at first then turn black, vomiting, headaches and painful swelling of the lymph
glands, called buboes-which is how it gets its name. This disease mainly
affects rodents, but it can be transmitted to people by the fleas that these
rodents carry.
If left untreated, the plague kills roughly half its victims in the time span of
three to seven days. Its a very contagious disease and once one person is
infected it spreads quickly to infect others. It kills people rapidly, and was a
major problem in Medieval times, where they didn't have the medicines to
combat the disease. The Bubonic Plague is the disease that caused the
Black Death, which killed tens of millions of people in Europe alone during the
Middle Ages.
Signs and Symptoms:
The best-known symptoms of the plague is one or more infected, enlarged,
and painful lymph nodes, known as buboes. Buboes associated with the
Bubonic Plague are commonly found in the armpits, upper femoral, groin, and
neck area, as well as on the fingers, toes, lips and nose. Bubonic Plague
symptoms appear suddenly a few days after exposure to the bacterium.
These symptoms include: Chills, general ill feeling, high fever, muscle
cramps, seizures, painful lymph gland swelling (found often near the site of
the initial infection), gangrene, vomiting blood, coughing, extreme pain
caused by the decay of skin while the person is still alive, and lenticulae
(black spots scattered on the body).
Cause:
Bubonic Plague is an infection of the lymphatic system, usually resulting from
the bite of an infected flea, the rat flea. This flea is parasitic on house and
field rats, and when its host dies the rat seeks out another, thus spreading
the bacteria. The bacteria form collects in the gut of infected fleas, resulting in
the flea regurgitating ingested blood, which is now infected, into the bite of a
small rodent or human.
After being transmitted via the bite of an infected flea, the bacteria becomes
localised in an inflamed lymph node where they begin to colonise and
reproduce rapidly, causing the swelling of the lymph nodes. Because of its
bite-based mode of transmission, the Bubonic Plague is often the first of a
progressive series of illnesses. The Bubonic Plague can progress to lethal
septicemic plague in some cases, which is an infection of the blood. The
plague it is also known to infect the lungs and become a disease known as
the pneumonic plague, an infection of the respiratory system, which can then
be transmitted from human to human without the involvement of fleas or
animals.
The bacteria can also enter your body if you have a break in your skin, from a
cut, that comes into contact with an infected animal or their blood.
Treatment:
Several classes of antibiotics are effective in treating the Bubonic Plague.
People infected by the plague need immediate treatment, and should be
given antibiotics within the first 24 hours of the first symptoms to prevent
death. Mortality associated with treated cases of the Bubonic Plague is
around 1-15%, compared to a mortality of 40-60% in untreated cases.
Other treatments include oxygen, intravenous fluids, and respiratory support.
People who have had contact with anyone infected by pneumonic plague are
given prophylactic antibiotics. Using the broad-based antibiotic streptomycin
has proven to be dramatically successful against the bubonic plague within
the first 12 hours of being infected.
History of the bubonic Plague:
The Bubonic Plague arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12
Genoese trading ships reached Sicily after a journey through the Black Sea.
Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive
were in the process of dying from the Plague. They were covered in black
boils that gave their illness its name, the Black Death. The Sicilian authorities
ordered the fleet of death ships out of the harbour, but it was too late: Over
the next five years, the Black Death killed more than 20 million people in
Europealmost one-third of the continents population.
Physicians relied on techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing, as well
as superstitious practices like burning aromatic herbs and bathing in
rosewater or vinegar. Doctors refused to see patients; priests refused to
administer last rites. People fled the cities for the countryside but they
couldn't escape the disease. The Bubonic Plague affected cows, sheep,
goats, pigs and chickens as well as people.
The epidemic had run its course by the 1350s, but the plague reappeared
every few generations for centuries. Modern sanitation and public-health
practices have caused the disease to mostly disappear, but have not
eliminated it completely.
Scientists discovered that the Bubonic Plague is spread by a bacteria called
Yersina pestis. It was discovered by the French biologist Alexandre Yersin at
the end of the 19th century. The bacteria travels through the air, as well as
through the bite of infected fleas and rats. Fleas/rats could be found almost
everywhere in Medieval Europe, but particularly aboard ships of all kinds
which is how the plague made its way through one European port city after
another.
A resurgence of the plague, often referred to as the Modern Plague,
appeared in China in the 1860s and spread around the world during the
second half of the 19th century. It is estimated that the Modern Plague led to
the deaths of approximately 10 million people. Additional outbreaks of plague
continued to occur in the twentieth century. Between 1901 and 1909 there
was an outbreak in San Francisco. Another outbreak occurred in Vietnam in
the 1960s/1970s during the Vietnam War (19551975).
The Bubonic Plague and other forms of the plague are still around today, but
mostly in third-world countries and places without proper sanitation systems.
Summary:
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis.
Transmission occurs via fleas that feed on infected animals, typically wild
rodents.
There are three forms of Plague in humans: Bubonic, Pneumonic, and
Septicemic.
Bubonic Plague symptoms include painful/enlarged lymph nodes, chills,
headaches, fever and weakness.
The symptoms of the plague generally develop between 2 and 7 days after
a person is infected.
There is no commercially available vaccine against the plague.
Antibiotics are the treatment of choice for the plague and are most effective
when given early in the course of the disease.
The Bubonic Plague caused the death of one-third of the population in
Europe during the Middle Ages.
In 2016, the Bubonic Plague was responsible for 63 deaths in Madagascar.
