Plague
But it's important to note that most plague is spread from animal to human, not person to person - Julia Belluz
image by: Brad Wolfe
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Avoiding the Black Plague Today
Even in areas of the world that still experience outbreaks, mortality rates from plague are estimated to be eight to 10 percent. The disease that caused the most lethal epidemics recorded in history and killed 60 percent of the people in medieval London and Florence is no longer on the most feared-killers list.
"O happy posterity, who will not experience such abysmal woe and will look upon our testimony as a fable," wrote Renaissance poet Petrarch, who lost his beloved and muse, Laura, to the "Black Death." Petrarch, a native of the Republic of Florence, witnessed a terror we can only find in end-of-the-world Hollywood blockbusters today:
The lucky few who had escaped the…
Resources
Why the United States Is Plagued With Plague
The bacterium that causes plague—Yersinia pestis—might have never gained a foothold in the United States. The bacterium could have been eradicated at its source, but years of governmental delay, bureaucratic snafus, false optimism, and misguided frugality led to our current state: Y. pestis can be found in rodent populations throughout the Western half of the country.
Bubonic plague (aka The Black Death) probably already here, in Los Angeles, says Dr. Drew
"This is disgusting, it is reckless negligence," said Dr. Drew. "We have to have a solution to this."
Bubonic Plague Deaths Quarantine Tourist Flight And Close Border
The plague, which can now be treated, can kill inside a day albeit it usually takes longer. The disease is treatable with antibiotics but hundreds have died around the world in recent years. Prevention relies on not touching (or obviously eating) dead animals in those areas where the plague is present. Without treatment, the plague kills up to 90% of those infected within ten days.
Plague bacteria may be hiding in common soil or water microbes, waiting to emerge
Plague is a highly contagious disease that has killed millions of people over the past 1,400 years. Outbreaks still sporadically occur in as many as 36 countries worldwide. Perhaps one of the greatest remaining mysteries surrounding plague is how and where it survives between outbreaks.
The Plague Isn’t Back—It Actually Never Left
The key to surviving a plague infection is quick diagnosis and proper treatment, the CDC says. Today, plague is easily treatable with antibiotics, so even if one is bitten by an infected flea, plague isn’t the death sentence it was during the Black Death era.
Wait, You Can Still Get the Plague?
While it makes sense, cosmically, that the plague would be yet another thing happening in the year of 2019, the plague never actually went anywhere. We just have modern health precautions for avoiding it now, as we do for many illnesses that are just a couple bites of undercooked meat away from killing us. Each year in the U.S., an average of seven people still get the plague. The most common is bubonic, though they’re all caused by the same bacteria.
Why plague—one of history’s deadliest diseases—still afflicts U.S. wildlife
Centuries after it ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, plague remains endemic in the western U.S. Here’s why—and the risk it poses to humans today.
Ancient Teeth Unlock Plague Secrets
The findings suggest the pathogen’s ancestor is almost 1,000 years older than previously thought.
Bubonic plague cases are on the rise in the US. Yes, really
Plague is a disease you probably associate with the Middle Ages, when the "Black Death" killed 50 million people, wiping out most of Europe. But it's still around today. In some countries, particularly Madagascar, people live in constant fear of plague. Every year, the US records about a dozen plague deaths...
Explainer: understanding plague in the 21st century
In medieval times, plague was known as the “black death” and resulted in millions of Europeans dying. Plague still persists in many areas, with the highest annual burden of disease in Africa. The advent of antibiotics means that milder versions of plague can be treated. But according to the World Health Organization, pneumonic plague is still one of the most deadly infectious diseases. If someone contracts it, they can be dead within 24 hours.
Inside A Modern-Day Plague Outbreak
Controlling the epidemic in Madagascar means addressing the stigma around the disease.
Plague blame game: Gerbils replace rats as prime suspects
For a long time, rats have taken the heat for the waves of plague that killed millions of people across Europe starting in the 14th century. But now suspicion is falling on another rodent with a much cuddlier reputation: the gerbil.
Plague was one of history’s deadliest diseases—then we found a cure
Plague is a bacterial infection found mainly in rodents and their fleas. But via those fleas it can sometimes leap to humans. When it does, the outcome can be horrific, making plague outbreaks the most notorious disease episodes in history. Most infamous of all was the Black Death, a medieval pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe.
Reliving Nightmare of Plague, 10 Years On
Bubonic plague is transmitted by fleas that feed off pack rats, ground squirrels and prairie dogs in the mountains of New Mexico and several other states. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease probably came to the United States around 1900, in Asian rats that escaped from ships in the port of San Francisco.
Black Death's Daddy Was the Bubonic Plague
The bubonic plague makes its first deadly appearance in historical records during the sixth century, and scientists and historians have long eyed it as the culprit of the Black Death that went down from 1347 to 1353, as well as of other plagues throughout history. But uncertainty in genetic data has produced other suspects, including viral hemorrhagic fever or some yet-to-be-discovered disease. All of this data, according to the study, points to bubonic plague as the cause of the 400-year-long pandemic and not other diseases.
Did bubonic plague really cause the Black Death?
Everyone thinks the Black Death was caused by bubonic plague. But they could be wrong – and we need to find the real culprit before it strikes again.
Madagascar Wrestles With Worst Outbreak of Plague in Half a Century
Although the plague—also known as Black Death, the disease that decimated Europe’s population in the 14th century—is endemic in Madagascar, it has struck some of the islands’ nonendemic areas and densely-populated cities for the first time. The vast majority of the cases have been pneumonic plague, which is the most virulent form of the bacterial disease and can quickly and easily spread from one person to another through droplets in the air.
Plague outbreak: where does it still exist and could it spread?
Plague was responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in three devastating pandemics, including the Plague of Justinian in the 6th century, the Black Death in the 14th century, and the Third Pandemic that originated in China in the 19th century. In these pandemics, it’s generally thought plague was introduced by rats (often transported on ships) then transmitted to local rats in domestic settings. Fleas then transmit the bacterium between infected rats and humans. But there’s still some debate on the transmission pathways of plague in these pandemics.
Squirrel Plague Prompts Fears: Should You Be Scared Of The Black Death?
The United States is one of the many countries around the world that technically still suffers from what was once called the Black Death. Although we're not keeling over like medieval peasants, there are regular cases of bubonic plague that spring up every year in the American southwest.
Five things you might not know about the plague (not including the fact that it still exists)
The plague—yes, that plague—is alive and well in the modern world. If this comes as a shock, you probably don't live in one of the few areas that still harbors the bacteria that causes it. There are only a handful of countries left with it, including the U.S., but there are still widespread outbreaks in some of those areas—we're talking upwards of a thousand people in some cases.
A U.S. Squirrel Has the Plague: Are We All Going to Die?
Yes, but probably not of bubonic plague. The very same apocalyptic Black Death does still linger in the U.S., though. It's worth knowing something about.
The Bright Side of the Black Death
When the plague hit in the mid-1300s, no one knew what caused this dreadful pestilence. Some took it as divine punishment for the world’s wicked ways, possibly the end of the world. Others blamed Jews, foreigners, travelers, and lepers, who were shunned and turned away where once they had been welcomed or at least accepted. Some towns barricaded themselves in, afraid to let anyone in who was not already there and equally afraid to let anyone out.
The History of Plague – Part 1. The Three Great Pandemics
There have been three great world pandemics of plague recorded, in 541, 1347, and 1894 CE, each time causing devastating mortality of people and animals across nations and continents. On more than one occasion plague irrevocably changed the social and economic fabric of society.
Avoiding the Black Plague Today
Though it calls to mind medieval massacre, the deadly infectious disease known simply as plague is still around. New research on how the disease spreads helps us better understand the pandemic that killed up to 100 million people, and how to continue to keep it in check.
Black Death
The Black Death was 'a squalid disease that killed within a week' and a national trauma that utterly transformed Britain. Dr Mike Ibeji follows its deadly path.
Plague
A small group of survivors seek shelter from an infection that has spread like a plague among the human race. Evie (Tegan Crowley) and her fellow survivors find refuge and wait for her husband John’s (Scott Marcus) return. After the infected attack, Evie refuses to abandon her husband against the wishes of the group. The survivors revolt leaving Evie to an uncertain fate. With the unexpected arrival of Charlie (Steven Kennedy) what appears to be an opportunity at a new beginning quickly turns into a horror as menacing as the infected that pursue them.
Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Europe
The coming of the Black Death, when in just two years perhaps one third to one half of Europe's population was destroyed, marks a watershed in Medieval and Renaissance European History.
The Black Death: Bubonic Plague
In the early 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China. The bubonic plague mainly affects rodents, but fleas can transmit the disease to people. Once people are infected, they infect others very rapidly. Plague causes fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes, which is how it gets its name.
CDC
Plague is a disease that affects humans and other mammals. It is caused by the bacterium, Yersinia pestis. 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. Plague is infamous for killing millions of people in Europe during the Middle Ages. Today, modern antibiotics are effective in treating plague.
CIDRAP
In primary pneumonic plague, as with bubonic plague, organisms often enter the bloodstream and cause multiorgan involvement, DIC, and shock. In the absence of early antibiotic therapy (ie, within the first 24 hours), death occurs from overwhelming sepsis (usually within several days after illness onset). Without therapy, mortality approaches 100%.
MayoClinic
Plague is a serious bacterial infection that's transmitted by fleas. Known as the Black Death during medieval times, today plague occurs in fewer than 5,000 people a year worldwide. It can be deadly if not treated promptly with antibiotics. The organism that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, lives in small rodents on every continent except Australia. The organism is transmitted to humans who are bitten by fleas that have fed on infected rodents or by humans handling infected animals. The most common form of plague results in swollen and tender lymph nodes — called buboes — in the groin, armpits or neck. The rarest and deadliest form of plague affects the lungs, and it can be spread from person to person.
MedicineNet
Approximately 10 to 20 people in the United States develop plague each year from flea or rodent bites—primarily from infected prairie dogs—in rural areas of the southwestern United States. About 1 in 7 of those infected die from the disease. There has not been a case of person-to-person infection in the United States since 1924. Worldwide, there have been small plague outbreaks in Asia, Africa, and South America.
MedlinePlus
Plague is an infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The bacteria are found mainly in rats and in the fleas that feed on them. People and other animals can get plague from rat or flea bites. In the past, plague destroyed entire civilizations. Today plague is uncommon, due to better living conditions and antibiotics.
Patient
Human infection most commonly results from being bitten by a rat flea called Xenopsylla cheopis. These fleas feed off the infected rodents and swallow the bacteria which then multiply in the fleas stomach. This makes the flea hungry and they then bite a human and vomit the bacteria into the bite. The flea dies of subsequent starvation as the bacteria in the stomach inhibits blood flow to the gut making them vomit when they eat.
WHO
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis, a zoonotic bacteria, usually found in small animals and their fleas. It is transmitted between animals and humans by the bite of infected fleas, direct contact, inhalation and rarely, ingestion of infective materials. Plague can be a very severe disease in people, with a case-fatality ratio of 30%-60% if left untreated. There are 3 forms of plague infection, depending on the route of infection: bubonic, septicaemic and pneumonic.
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