Causal Agent:
The Plague is caused by a bacterium known as Yersinia Pestis. Which “was discovered by Yersin (a french physician) in 1894” as stated by the Journal La Peste Bubonique. Yersinia Pestis is a gram negative bacterium which is a rod shaped coccobacillus.
Clinical Disease:
The Plague attacks in three different type of forms. The bubonic plague which is the most common type, leads one to death within 5 days if not treated or naturally cured. The bubonic plague normally results in the formation of swollen lymph nodes called buboes. They are very painful big black spots that can be up to a size of a tennis ball.
The other form of plague is called Septicemic Plague which also kills a victim within 5 days. This form is not as common as the bubonic plague but still is dangerous. This form is zoonosis therefore, is spread from a rodent to a human. The bacterium Yersinia Pestis infects the bloodstream of the victim.
The deadliest form of the plague is known as the pneumonic plague which results when the bacteria colonizes into one's lungs. Soon the lungs are damaged and the tissues is broken down within the lungs and soon the victim begins to cough up infectious blood . This form of the plague can
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The black death broke out in central asia around Kazakhstan and the Western China area in 1347. The disease spread eastward towards China but it was mainly spread to Europe due to the trade route known as the silk road. The silk road was a very important trade route and the westerners and chinese traded at this location. The disease is believed to have spread by the rats in the luggage which consisted of rat fleas but also may have spread due to human flees. Once again the “discovery of Y. pestis genetic material in those who died from the Black Death and are buried in medieval graves further supports the view that Y. pestis was the causative agent of the Black Death.” as stated by the article written by Raoult
The Black Death (also called the "plague" or the "pestilence", the bacteria that causes it is Yersinia Pestis) was a devastating pandemic causing the death of over one-third of Europe's population in its major wave of 1348-1349. Yersinia Pestis had two major strains: the first, the Bubonic form, was carried by fleas on rodents and caused swelling of the lymph nodes, or "buboes", and lesions under the skin, with a fifty-percent mortality rate; the second, the pneumonic form, was airborne after the bacteria had mutated and caused fluids to build up in the lungs and other areas, causing suffocation and a seventy-percent mortality rate.
After a series of biochemical tests and evaluation to determine several unknown bacteria, the bacterium Yersinia pestis was chosen to report. The discovery of Y. pestis dates back to 1894 by French/Swiss physician and bacteriologist named Alexandre Yersin. The name Yersinia pestis is synonymous with its more common name, the plague. Y. pestis is known to infect small rodents such as mice and rats, but is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected animal or flea. Although this bacterium is known to still cause illness today, it is infamous for three pandemics that occurred in earlier centuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first recorded pandemic occurred in 541 A.D. and is known as the Justinian Plague. The second pandemic originated in China in 1334 and has received the egregious name the “Black Death.” Finally, the third outbreak took place in the 1860’s and is known as the Modern Plague. It wasn’t until the end of the Modern Plague that scientists discovered the causative agent and mode of transmission of the Yersinia pestis bacterium.
In 1347, Europe began to perceive what the Plague had in store. Terrible outcomes arose when the citizens caught the Plague from fleas. The transfer of fleas to humans caused the outbreak of the Black Death. Infections that rodents caught were passed on to fleas, which would find a host to bite, spreading the terrible disease (“Plague the Black Death” n.pag.). When Genoese ships arrived back to Europe from China, with dead sailors and...
The disease was caused by a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis which was carried by fleas that lived on the black rats. These rodents helped spread the plague. The diseases spread one of two ways. The first was through human contact and the second was through the air, people were infected with the disease just by inhaling it. The symptoms and characteristics of the disease included fever, fatigue, muscle aches and the formation of buboes which is swollen lymph nodes. These buboes were usually found under the arm, on the neck or in the groin area. It is caused by internal bleeding which eventually forms black spots or boils under the skin (which is why it is called the black death). Death usually followed shortly after these symptoms
During the thirteenth century the plague started spreading, it spread through the trade routes of many countries. Many people only heard of the plague being in China, but little did they know that the infection was already following the routes. There were three types of the Black Death: Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicemic. The Bubonic strain of the plague was more common, and an infected person would have symptoms of chills, fever, vomiting, and rapid heartbeat. The person would soon develop inflamed swelling, which are called buboes.
Yersinia pestis infection comes in three forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic; the pneumonic plague is the deadliest. The rodent epidemic is transmitted unto humans when Y. pestis “are transmitted by fleabite, enters the lymphatic [system]
Even though the bubonic plague can not be transmitted among humans, it was the most common of the three plagues. The bubonic plague occurs when fleas feed on the blood of infected rodents, which are usually rats (Poland 1). The bacterium that causes the infection is known as Yersenia Pestis. The fleas then pass the bacteria when they bite a human or when materials infected with Yersenia pestis directly enters the body through a wound. The names of this plague come from the swellings, also known as buboes, that appeared on a victim’s neck, armpits, or groin (Gottfried,1).The lymph nodes suddenly become painful and swollen with pus especially in the groin. Later, the skin splits and oozes pus and blood. Blood also comes out of the victim’s urine which, like the rest of the symptoms, smells horribly. These swellings (also known as tumors) could be as small as an egg or as big as an apple. Even though some people survived this disease, others would have a life expectancy of a week.
The Black Death came in 3 forms: the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Each different from of the plague killed people in a vicious way. All forms were caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis.
No one knows for sure from where this deadly disease originated. Most Scholars agree that it came out of China. It is there that the first cases of the plague were documented. From China, it spread both by land and by sea. By land the disease came with rats that were traveling on caravans in Central Asia by the Silk Road. By sea, it spread when the Mongols came down from Northern China to attack an Italian trading post at Crimea. Fighting ensued and millions fled on ships going to Genoa, Italy. Unfortunately for them, the ships were harboring rats and fleas infested with the deadly bacteria. Not only did most aboard the ships perish, b...
The Black Death was associated with three types of plague, which were all caused by Yersinia Pestis. The bubonic plague had a mortality rate of 80 percent. It was “spread through the bite of a flea” (The Black Death, 23). The most noticeable symptom is swelling of the lymph nodes. After the outbreak of the symptoms, death would occur within three to six days. Yet, ten to forty percent of people affected by the bubonic plague would recover. The second type was the pneumonic plague and it had a mortality rate of 90% to 95%. The pneumonic plague it is transferred by “respiratory fluids” (The Black Death, 23). The plague kills its victims in a period of two to three days. The third type is the septicemic plague and it had a mortality rate of nearly 100%. This plague “spread through a direct invasion or poisoning of the blood” (The Black Death,
The actual cause of the Black Death is still debated today, but most historians believe that it was the result of a plague with bacteria. The bubonic plague most likely affected humans with a bacterium that caused many problems. The bacterium that caused the bubonic plague is called Yersinia pestis. A combination of old historical records and details give some evidence that the bubonic plague was indeed caused by this bacteria. Scientists have worked to obtain even more evidence by excavations. Burial sites from the Black Death period were excavated to find the skeletons of plague victims. The skeletons were tested in order to see if the victims had be...
The Black Death is now known to be spread by a flea. However, this flea was not the cause as it was the bacterium which lay in the stomach of the flea. This bacterium’s scientific name is Yersinia pestis. The main host of the flea is a rat, scientifically called Rattus rattus. Humans caught the disease because when the rats bred rapidly, it would lead to a population invasion. When the rat died, the flea would have to find another warm-blooded host to feed on, and next to them are humans. The flea bites the human and infects them. The unhygienic living conditions in the Middle Ages led to a faster spread of the disease, as a result creating a better environment for rats to live in. The lack of knowledge in the fourteenth century led to even worse remedies.
Sweeping through Western Europe during the fourteenth century, the Bubonic Plague wiped out nearly one third of the population and did not regard: status, age or even gender. All of this occurred as a result of a single fleabite. Bubonic Plague also known as Black Death started in Asia and traveled to Europe by ships. The Plague was thought to be spread by the dominating empire during this time, the Mongolian Empire, along the Silk Road. The Bubonic Plague was an infectious disease spread by fleas living on rats, which can be easily, be attached to traveler to be later spread to a city or region. Many factors like depopulation, decreasing trade, and huge shifts in migrations occurred during the Bubonic Plague. During Bubonic Plague there were also many different beliefs and concerns, which include fear, exploitation, religious and supernatural superstition, and a change of response from the fifteenth to eighteen century.
It was a bubonic plague that came from Asia and spread by black rats infested with fleas. The plague spread like a wildfire because people who lived in high populated areas were living very close to each other and had no idea what was the cause of the disease or how to cure it. The signs of the “inevitable death” where blood from the nose, fever, aching and swellings big as an “apple” in the groin or under the armpits. From there the disease spread through the body in different directions and soon after it changed into black spots that appeared on the arms and thighs. Due to the lack of medical knowledge, no doctors manage to find a remedy. Furthermore a large number of people without any kind of medical experience tried to help the sick but most of them failed “...there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practiced without having received the slightest tincture of medical science - and, being in ignorance of its source, failed to apply the proper remedies…” (Boccaccio). The plague was so deadly that it was enough for a person to get infected by only touching the close of the
The disease itself was ripping apart the very fabric of society. The virus attacks the lymph nodes and lungs. The buboes formed from the virus are usually formed in the groin or armpit depending on the closest lymph node. The plague is highly contagious, spread by speaking, coughing, and sneezing. There are two types of plague, the septimic and the pneumonic.