Yersinia Pestis Essay

1623 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Bubonic plague history

Yersinia pestis is the cause of plague; it is also known as “Black Death” due to the millions of casualties it has caused. There are three pandemics that have been recorded. First major event was in 541-767 AD, the central and east parts Africa had been swarmed by the plague, killing 40-100 million.(1) The second major event was in 1346-1800 in parts of central Asia and Europe, killing around 25 million. The third major event was in the 1800s in China, killing around 12 million. Y. pestis was discovered in the 1800s by Alexander Yersin.(1,2) He studied this bacteria by extracting the microorganism from the lymph nodes of dead infected individuals and injecting them into live guinea pigs.(1) Later in 1896 he developed a remedy to cure the disease caused by Y. pestis and also discovered a relationship between rats and infection by Y. pestis.(2) However, it was Paul-Louis Simond who actually discovered that it was the oriental rat flea from rats was the vector that infected rats and other mammals.(1,2) The plague is a zoonotic disease; prairie dogs and squirrels have been found to be commonly infected with Y. pestis; however, other larger and smaller mammals can also become infected.(1) Y. pestis can cause a number of different symptoms and can manifest as bubonic, septicemic, or pneumonic forms. Due to the high infectious potential and severity the organism, it has been used as a bioterrorism agent in the past. Etiology Y. pestis is part of the Enterobacteriaceae family. This microorganism is gram negative and grows in most environments as it is a facultative anaerobe.(1,2) Y. pestis is described as coccobacillus when visualized under a microscope and does not form any spores. Y. pestis has a large temperature range for growth; ... ... middle of paper ... ...enuated strains, such as the EV76 strain.(1,2,3) The EV76 live vaccine is commercially available and used worldwide.(3) In addition, there is a 1 to 20 percent chance that this vaccine will cause mild side effects and an even lower chance that severe side effects will occur.(3) The factor which makes the vaccine effective is that that vaccine contains F1 antigen to induce an immune response in the individual.(1,2,3) However, there have been strains that lack the F1 antigen rendering the vaccine useless. So researchers have developed a vaccine which includes the F1 antigen and the LcVR (V antigen).(3) The LcVR is part of the type III secretion system in Y. pestis and the addition of this component can provide immunity against F1 negative strains.(3) Vaccine candidates for future studies may include the different types of Yops that Y. pestis can use for virulence.(2)

Show More
Related

  • Oxidation-Fermentation Lab Report

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    Table 6 shows the results of the biochemical tests. The isolate can obtain its energy by means of aerobic respiration but not fermentation. In the Oxidation-Fermentation test, a yellow color change was produced only under both aerobic conditions, indicating that the EI can oxidize glucose to produce acidic products. In addition to glucose, the EI can also utilize lactose and sucrose, and this deduction is based on the fact that the color of the test medium broth changed to yellow in all three Phenol Red Broth tests. These results are further supported by the results of the Triple Sugar Iron Agar test. Although the EI does perform fermentation of these three carbohydrates, it appears that this bacterium cannot perform mixed acid fermentation nor 2,3-butanediol fermentation due to the lack of color change in Methyl Red and Vogues-Proskauer

    Read More

  • The Black Plague and Its Impact on Medicine in Medieval Society

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Yersinia Pestis - The Plague

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • 14th Century Outbreak of the Black Plague

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • A Plague: The Black Death, By Rosemary Horrox

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Black Death is one of the deadliest epidemics to ever hit mankind. It is estimated that this epidemic killed nearly 30%-60% of the population depending on the location. Recently, scholars have argued over the existence of the Black Death as a Plague in the form of Yersinia Pestis. Many argue, through scientific research and primary sources, that the Black Death was indeed a plague. Their critics argue that there is not enough evidence in the correlation of the scientific research and the primary sources to conclude that the Black Death was really a plague. The primary source The Black Death, by Rosemary Horrox, is a compilation of different accounts of the plague throughout Europe in the 1300’s. The two modern sources Plague Historians

    Read More

  • Bubonic Plague Dbq

    1820 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague and Bubonic Plague, was a catastrophic plague that started out in Asia and began to spread into Europe. In the span of three years, the Black Death killed about one third of all the people in Europe. The plague started out in the Gobi Dessert in Mongolia during the 1320’s. From the desert the plague began to spread outwards in all directions. China was among the first to suffer from the plague in the early 1330s before the plague hit Europe.

    Read More

  • Medieval Outlook on the Bubonic Plague

    1446 Words  | 3 Pages

    2.Jarret C. et al Transmisson of Yersinia Pestis from an infectious biofilm in the flea vector. Journal of Infectious Disease (2004) v 190 I4 p783

    Read More

  • The Spread of Disease In the New World

    1820 Words  | 4 Pages

    Disease and parasitism play a pervasive role in all life. Many of these diseases start with microparasites, which are characterized by their ability to reproduce directly within an individual host. They are also characterized by their small size, short duration of infection, and the production of an immune response in infected and recovered individuals. Microparasites which damage hosts in the course of their association are recognized as pathogens. The level of the interaction and the extent of the resultant damage depends on both the virulence of the pathogen, as well as the host defenses. If the pathogen can overcome the host defenses, the host will be damaged and may not survive. If on the other hand the host defenses overcome the pathogen, the microparasite may fail to establish itself within the host and die.

    Read More

  • The Black Death or Buponic Plague: Dead of the Population

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pandemics, once started, are expected to spread worldwide. They cannot be stopped from spreading, once they outbreak, they continuously spread. The Black Death was a disease that spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. There were approximately 25 million deaths in Europe alone. The Black Death was caused by the bacterium called Yersinia Pestis during the 13th century. The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague was caused by a single contamination of one person. The Black Death was caused by a single bacterium, overcrowding in areas like Europe, which effected a huge part of the population by simply killing it off.

    Read More

  • The Black Death

    2054 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the beginning, the Italian town of Genoa was one of the busiest ports in Europe. Ships sailed from there to trade all over the Mediterranean Sea. In October of 1347, 12 merchant ships sailed from Caffa to Italy. A strange disease had infected the crew of these ships. Dying bodies lay aboard the ships. City officials, afraid that the disease might spread, issued an order that no person or piece of merchandise was to leave the ships. They even forbade medical treatment for the sick sailors and passengers. The disease still spread. The officials had not considered that the rats from the ships were able to leave the ships by crawling along the ropes that were tied to the ships. From Italy, the disease spread all over Europe, traveling along the major trade routes. The rats were responsible for carrying the disease, which was transmitted by fleas from infected rats. The fleas drank the rats' blood that carried the bacteria. The bacteria multiplied in the flea's gut. While the fleas gut was clogged with bacteria, the flea bit the human and regurgitated blood into the wound.

    Read More

  • Economic Impact Of The Black Plague

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bubonic Plague, or more commonly known as ‘The Black Death’ or ‘The Black Plague,’ was one of the most devastating and deadliest pandemics that humans have ever witnessed in the history of mankind. The disease spanned two continents in just a few years, marking every country between Western Europe all the way to China. During the reign of the plague, which is estimated to be the years between 1347-1352, it is estimated that “20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population” was killed off due to the plague. The Black Plague would change the course of European history since the plague knew no boundaries and inflicted its wrath upon the rich and the poor alike. As a result, not only did the plague have a devastating demographic impact which encountered a massive social disruption, but also, an economic and religious impact as well.

    Read More

  • Plague Dbq

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    The fleas of the rats carried the disease from person to person. But this theory does not explain how quickly the plague spread all over the world. In Clerkenwell, London, skeletons from the 14th century were discovered and examined by scientists. Using the latest technology and modern medicine, scientists analyzed the teeth of the corpses and now believe that the plague was airborne and spread through coughs and sneezes. According to an article by Arthur Martin, “the plague—spread by the bites of infected fleas living on black rats—mutated into a more virulent strain that passed easily from human to

    Read More

  • The Causes And Effects Of The Black Death

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Causes and Effects of The Black Death

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Informative Essay: Plagues

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plague is a deadly infectious disease (ZOONOTIC DISEASE) caused by a gram negative bacterium Yersinia pestis. Plague is a disease that affects humans and other mammals. The bacteria are mainly found in rats and in the fleas that feed on them. Plague is transmitted to humans or other animals from rats and fleas bite that is carrying the plague bacterium, scratches from infected animals, inhalation of aerosols or consumption of food contaminated with the plague bacterium i.e. Yersinia pestis. In the past, plague destroyed entire civilization; no disease has impacted civilization as deeply as the plague did in Egypt, Europe, and Asia during Middle Ages. As many as 200 million people have died from this disease.

    Read More

More about Yersinia Pestis Essay

Open Document