Bubonic plague

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Bubonic plague is the best-known manifestation of the bacterial disease plague, caused by the bacterium "Yersinia pestis" (formerly known as "Pasteurella pestis"). Bubonic plague is often used synonymously for plague, but it does in fact refer specifically to an infection that enters through the skin and travels through the lymphatics, as is often seen in flea-borne infections. Bubonic Plague kills about 50% of infected patients in 4-7 days. The Bubonic plague is believed by many to be the Black Death that was in Europe in the 1340s.

Pathology and transmission

The Bubonic plague is an infection of the lymphatic system, usually resulting from the bite of an infected flea. The fleas are often found on rodents, and seek out other prey when their rodent hosts die. Once established, bacteria rapidly spread to the lymph nodes and multiply. "Yersinia pestis" can resist phagocytosis and even reproduce inside phagocytes and kill them. As the disease progresses, the lymph nodes can hemorrhage and become necrotic. Bubonic plague can progress to lethal septicemic plague in some cases.

ymptoms

The most famous symptom of bubonic plague is swollen lymph nodes, called "buboes." These are commonly found in the armpits, groin or neck. The bubonic plague was the first step of the ongoing plague. The two other forms of the plague, pneumonic and septicemic, resulted after a patient with the bubonic plague developed pneumonia or blood poisoning.

The plague causes fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes, which is how it gets its name. The disease also causes symptoms like spots on the skin that are red at first and then turn black, heavy breathing, continuous blood vomiting, aching limbs and terrible pain.

Treatment

In the modern era, several classes of antibiotics are effective in treating bubonic plague. These include the aminoglycosides streptomycin and gentamicin, the tetracyclines tetracycline and doxycycline and the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin. Patients with plague in the modern era usually recover completely with prompt diagnosis, and treatment, although the disease is rarely seen in the industrialized world.

Further reading

*cite book
last=Alexander |first=John T.
title=Bubonic Plague in Early Modern Russia: Public Health and Urban Disaster
year=2003, 1980
publisher=Oxford University Press
location=Oxford, UK; New York, NY
isbn=0195158180
oclc=50253204

*cite book
last=Carol |first=Benedict
title=Bubonic Plague in Nineteenth-Century China
year=1996
publisher=Stanford University Press
location=Stanford, CA
isbn=0804726612
oclc=34191853

*cite book
last=Biddle |first=Wayne
title=A Field Guide to Germs
year=2002 |edition= 2nd Anchor Books edition
publisher=Anchor Books
location=New York
isbn=140003051X
oclc=50154403

*cite book
last=Echenberg |first=Myron J.
title=Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague, 1894-1901
year=2007
publisher=New York University Press
location=New York, NY
isbn=0814722326
oclc=70292105

*cite book
last=Little |first=Lester K.
title=Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750
year=2007
publisher=Cambridge University Press
location=New York, NY
isbn=9780521846394
oclc=65361042

*cite book
last=Scott |first=Susan, and C. J. Duncan
title=Biology of Plagues: Evidence from Historical Populations
year=2001
publisher=Cambridge University Press
location=Cambridge, UK; New York, NY
isbn=0521801508
oclc=44811929

ee also

*The Black Death
*List of historical plagues

Notes