Fast and Furious: The Yersinia pestis Bacterium
In 2014, Italy auctioned off Poveglia, one of its islands near Venice, for about $700,000 in order to help pay off some of the country’s national debt and conform to the European Union’s budgeting guidelines (Landini & Trogni, 2014). To most people, the thought of an Italian island near Venice may evoke charm, romance, and exoticness. Unfortunately, Poveglia is not that island. With its sordid past, Poveglia has been a deserted island for over 40 years – with locals and tourists both being barred from even visiting (Poveglia Island, n.d.). It has had an enduring reputation for being haunted– one noteworthy reason being the Black Death that devastated much of southern Europe during the 13th
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pestis bacteria have been so successful in infecting and causing pandemics because of their ability to escape and avoid the host’s immune system (Ke, Chen, & Yang, 2013). Once a person is bitten by infected fleas, the Y. pestis bacteria enter the bloodstream, where they are accosted by macrophages and neutrophils (Ke, Chen, & Yang, 2013). While the neutrophils can typically kill these invaders (Ke, Chen, & Yang, 2013), the macrophages are challenged by Y. pestis’s “zippering” mechanism (Ke, Chen, & Yang, 2013). When “zippering”, the bacteria’s surface ligands bind to the macrophages, which ingest the bacterial cells (Ke, Chen, & Yang, 2013). Once inside, these bacteria escape from the macrophages and then become impervious to phagocytosis by the host’s immune system (Ke, Chen, & Yang, 2013). During this time of the initial stages of infection (3-7 days), an individual suffers with flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue, a high fever, and aches (Plague, …show more content…
Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) utilizes the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) to help limit the spread of plague and hopefully avoid a new epidemic from emerging (Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), 2016). The GOARN, a partnership of existing institutions (scientific, laboratory, technical, etc.), assembles the necessary resources for the identification, authentication, and response to outbreaks, such as for the Black Death (Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN),
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.
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
We live in a world where people become sick and infected with bacterial infections. Since mankind was born, infections continue to persevere and adapt. In the the thirteenth century, people meet a new kind of disease that could be transmitted from person to person. It was in this era that people began to get infected with diseases that caused a slow and painful death. In the modern era, the scientific world has innovated new antibiotics and vaccinations to prevent us from getting infections. However, not everybody was so fortunate, in the Middle Ages a massive outbreak of a deadly infections plagued most of Europe. The Bubonic Plague also known as the Black Death diminished one third of Europe’s population.
The bubonic plague was a horrifying plague that wiped out about 1/3 of the world’s population. The bubonic plague travelled very quickly but some question what it was that caused it to travel so quickly. In analyzing the fact that infectious droplets, human choices and trade were all major factors of the spread, one can conclude that humans had a major impact on the spread of the Bubonic Plague.
There are approximately two people who die every second of every minute of everyday. There are deadly events that generate mass deaths and upsurge mortality. These occurrences are the infamous epidemics. The most deadly of them all is the Black Death which took place in the 14th century. This monster pandemic not only took the lives of millions, but its long lasting effects changed the economy, culture, and religious beliefs.
Bubonic plague started to spread by fleas infected with Yersinia pestis. Fleas find a victim and try to feed by injecting its sucking mechanism, but the Yersinia pestis block the flea's esophagus and pharynx, preventing the flea from obtaining any blood. This causes the flea to continuously puncture its food source, in turn regurgitating into the wound and injecting it with the plague bacilli (“Hosts”). This caused the infections to spread to rats and rodents, flea’s main host.
Influenza, an innocent little virus that annually comes and goes, has always been a part of people’s lives. Knowing this, one would not believe that it has caused not one, not two, but three pandemics and is on its way to causing a fourth! The Spanish flu of 1918, the Asian flu of 1957, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 each killed millions of people worldwide, causing mass terror. People were mad with fear, and for good reason, as friends, family, neighbors dropped dead like flies. And yet, as soon as the deaths ceased, the forgetfulness set in… until very few know about these pandemics. These pieces of history may have faded from memory, but with the upcoming threat of an avian flu which can jump from human to human, people must learn from the past to combat the future.
The “plague” is known as the “Yersinia pestis” bacteria, which is a rare zoonotic disease. These diseases are spread from animal to human (Newquist 239, Adamloakun M.D. 718). The bacterium lives in rodents such as rats and is carried by fleas (Newquist 238). When the fleas bite humans, the bacterium spreads.
The main cause of the Great Plague of Europe came from a deadly bacterium known as Yersinia Pestis. A smear of the bubonic plague is evades the human body and concentrates itself in the lymph node. A plague patient’s blood profile would contain or...
...ary 2014)”. The Ebola epidemic helps remind the U.S. That other nations are there to work with them, and unite to prevent a rapid growing disease. CDC partners with programs from other nations, such as the Global Disease Detection Centers, and the Field Epidemiology Training Program, which work to stop the Ebola virus. Information systems will grow stronger, more partnerships dedicated to stopping outbreaks will be formed and laboratory security will also grow. The writer of the paper cannot agree more to this.
When looking back on history, it is evident to see that humans by nature are warriors. Humans often find themselves fighting mysterious battles against disguised enemies. Throughout history the earth has been afflicted with mysterious diseases, which tend to invisibly cause the preponderance of civilizations to perish. The evolution of infectious diseases has and always will provide challenges for humankind (Hoff, Smith, and Calisher 6-7). Over the course of time, humans gradually developed a preference to live in large urban settings. Urbanization and the cross-cultural interaction of civilizations have both strongly provoked widespread illness, which is known as an epidemic or pandemic based upon size. An epidemic is when a common disease affects a large number of people within a particular region (Lamb). A pandemic is similar to an epidemic but is even more widespread than an epidemic, and spreads throughout entire continents or even the world. Despite the slight variation in meaning, most pandemics are interchangeably denoted as epidemics (Friendlander 13-14). Epidemics and pandemics have formed the course of human history by inflicting lifestyle alterations and abruptly killing large masses of people. When one thinks of widespread disease it is easy to think that pandemics and epidemics are things of the past. Unfortunately, epidemics are commonly found today in poorer countries and major pandemics are still on the rise, such as the modern disease AIDS (Lampton 12-15). Nonetheless, epidemics and pandemics affect large portions of the world’s population; thus, these ongoing diseases will always influence the history of mankind because they force transformation amongst even the strongest civilizations.
(39) World Bank. Projects - Haiti: AVIAN INFLUENZA CONTROL AND HUMAN INFLUENZA EMERGENCY PREPARDNESS AND CONTROL. 2010; Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P111667. Accessed 6/27/2010, 2010.
In the 1960s, doctors in the United States predicted that infectious diseases were in decline. US surgeon Dr. William H. Stewart told the nation that it had already seen most of the frontiers in the field of contagious disease. Epidemiology seemed destined to become a scientific backwater (Karlen 1995, 3). Although people thought that this particular field was gradually dying, it wasn’t. A lot more of it was destined to come. By the late 1980s, it became clear that people’s initial belief of infectious diseases declining needed to be qualified, as a host of new diseases emerged to infect human beings (Smallman & Brown, 2011).With the current trends, the epidemics and pandemics we have faced have created a very chaotic and unreliable future for mankind. As of today, it has really been difficult to prevent global epidemics and pandemics. Although the cases may be different from one state to another, the challenges we all face are all interconnected in this globalized world.
The occurrence of infectious disease and epidemics has speckled the history of humanity since the first civilization established itself. Considering that a large population can help to foster infectious diseases, and humans share almost 300 communicable agents with animals, the outbreak of epidemics is inextricably intertwined with revol...
When examining diseases and how they affect a community, it is important for medical anthropologists to use a biological or epidemiological approach to gather information about the disease or pathogen behind the epidemic. An epidemiological approach “views disease in ecological term(s) as the interaction between a pathogen(s) and its host(s), as this interaction is shaped by the conditions of a specific environment(s)” (Joralemon 2010:33). In using this approach, information gathered about the genetics of the disease help determine how it spreads, what the rate of transmission is, the ways it affects the body as well as ways to prevent the spread and heal an infected person. This approach gathers very practical and scientific information that needs to be deciphered in terms of the community. When looking at the cholera epidemics in South America in the early 1990s, it was important for world leaders to know how the disease was spreading, how fast it was spreading and how it affected the body. The strengths to using the biological/epidemiological approach are that the government is able to pinpoint sources of contamination and identify disease pathogens. However, a limitation to this approach is that it does not take into consideration the cultural, ec...