Veronicka Vega
Professor Shea
English 1020
8, October 2017
The Plague in Modern Times Rough Draft Most people when they hear the word “plague” think of the Black Plague that swept through Europe in the mid 1300’s that resulted in millions of deaths. It is not well known that there are areas where the plague is endemic still to this day in places such as Madagascar, Congo, and even the United States. Public health officials and international organizations such as the World Health Organization, have generated methods of prevention and control that require government participation year-round. Despite prevention and control efforts, endemic areas are still dealing with their plague seasons annually and in Madagascar have seen the worst epidemics
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The plague has three different forms depending on where the infection takes place. Bubonic plague is the most common form and is caused when the Y. pestis bacteria enters through the lymphatic system. In the bubonic form of the plague the lymph nodes become inflamed and painful resulting in what are called buboes. The second form of the plague is the septicemic form which occurs when the bacteria travels through the blood stream from either flea bites or direct contact with infected materials. Septicemic plague can also be a result of an untreated bubonic plague infection that has advanced and spread to the blood stream. The third form of the plague is the pneumonic plague, the least common but also the most vicious. The pneumonic plague is a direct result of an untreated bubonic infection. With the pneumonic version, infected individuals can spread the infection to others via infected aerosolized droplets. The pneumonic plague has a case-fatality ratio close to 100%, which makes it the deadliest of the three routes of infection. After the initial incubation period which can be 3-7 days, flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, body weakness, and vomiting will develop. (Plague, World Health
The plague was the deadliest of its time. We now know ways on how to cure certain strains of the plague but some we can still not control it . In document 2 you can tell that 33% of all population had died from the black death. It had originated from “from the east” claim a lot of people.
After Edward III died in 1377, England experience domestic issues during the reign of Richard II
The most common one was Bubonic, it also killed the most people. If you had this your symptoms were chills, high fever, delirium, vomiting, and rapid heartbeat. You would develop inflamed swellings that had pus also known as “Bubose”. Fifty to eighty percent of people that had the plague died within three to six days. Pneumonic was less
Within weeks of the plague hitting it killed millions of people sweeping out ⅓ of Europe.(Shapiro 38). (SIP-B) The black plague had two different types of plagues that affected many people together. The two plagues that affected people were the bubonic plague and pneumonic plague. The pneumonic and bubonic had some differences and similarities but the biggest similarity of all was the factor of death. (STEWE-1) The bubonic plague was the plague that spread by a bite from a rat flea that was carrying the disease. So the only way you could be affected by the bubonic plague was from a flea bite that had bitten a rat that spread the disease (“The Black Death"). (STEWE-2) The pneumonic plague was where the bacteria of the black plague spread through the air that would cause an infection in the lungs, making it hard to breathe. The pneumonic plague was easier to contract than the bubonic plague because if you were to breathe in air an infected person with the black plague had recently coughed, it would be more than likely for you to contract the plague (“The Black
In the lymphatic system, the lymph nodes acts as filters, catching substances harmful to the body, like toxins, bacteria, cancer cells, and viruses. The plague directly targeted this form of defense. The plague has three forms of infection, based on how the bacteria were transmitted to the individual. These forms are bubonic, septicaemic and pneumonic. The Bubonic form was the most common, especially during the 14th century; this form of the plague came directly from flea bites. With the Bubonic plague, the bacteria travel to the lymph nodes where it begins to multiply. The lymph node begins to become inflamed. The swollen lymph nodes are called “buboes”. The swollen nodes soon begin to cause sores, and if left untreated, the Bubonic plague can turn into the septicaemic form. The septicaemic form is a result of the Y. pestis entering the bloodstream. Since the bacteria are overwhelming the lymph nodes, and causing them to swell, the immune system is compromised. Individuals with the septicaemic form of the plague suffer with a high fever and eventually die of multiple organ failure. The last and most fatal form of the plague is the pneumonic plague. When infected with the pneumonic plague, the individuals develop a cough due to high levels of mucus buildup in the lungs, about 99% of those who contract this form die. Although the disease is fatal if left untreated, there is
They were the bubonic plague, the pneumonic plague and the septicemic plague. Symptoms of the bubonic plague were: fevers, headaches, painful aching joints, nausea, vomiting and the feeling of malaise. This plague was sadly the most popular plague going around. The mortality rate for bubonic plague was 30% - 75%. 4/5 people who got this plague were dead within 8 days.
All throughout history nations all over the world have dealt with deadly diseases, but one in particular brought out the fear in the nations of Europe, the bubonic plague or as others call it, the black death. During the thirteenth century, medicine was not as developed as it is now, causing England to suffer more than others. According to Cantor (2002) the European nations encountered the bubonic plague in its most brutal state during 1348 to 1349, taking out about a third of Europe’s population (pp. 6-7). He continues on by claiming that one big question to this event was whether or not the plague was the full cause to the loss of lives or if there was another cause along with it (p. 11). Cantor (2002) also explained that the reason the black plague stopped in Europe around the eighteenth century could possibly have been from an introduction to a new species of rats, the gray rat (p. 13). Even though there is controversy based around the plague being spread by rats and how it was stopped by isolation, it may have taught countries useful strategies and ways to grow stronger.
The cause of the Bubonic Plague was by a living host that transport from one animal to another animal, which is called a vector-borne illness. A Xenopsylla Cheopis, an oriental rat flea, was the vector. When the flea bites, the wound is injected by infected blood and the body’s natural response to inflammatory decreases. The bacteria travels using white blood cells to find the closes lymph node, then spreads and multiplies. Lymph nodes are important because they carry fluids, waste material and nutrients to body tissues and the bloodstream. If they swell up, they can’t filter out the bad bacteria in the body. In the first few days of catching the plague, a person experiences large swelling in the lymph nodes which causes the body immune to
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the bubonic plague is the most common form of plague known. Where it usually occurs after the bite of an infected flea. The key characteristics of bubonic plague is that an infected person typically comes down with symptoms such as swollen and painful lymph nodes, usually in the groin, armpit or neck areas
The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is considered one of the most lethal in history. Recorded pandemics of the plague reach back to 541 A.D. and minor epidemics can still be found around the world (Plague). The plague consists of a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. This bacterium has the ability to mutate quickly and can easily destroy the immune system of the infected person, “it does this by injecting toxins into defense cells such as macrophages that are tasked with detecting bacterial infections. Once these cells are knocked out, the bacteria can multiply unhindered.” (Plague) The bubonic plague has a number of symptoms ranging from a headache to seizures. The most distinguishable
This second form of the disease is called septicemic plague. Fever, chills, headache, malaise, massive hemorrhaging, and death characterize septicemic plague. The bacterium moves through the bloodstream to the alveolar spaces of the lungs, leading to a suppurating pneumonia or pneumonic plague. “Pneumonic plague is rapidly fatal and is the only type that can be spread from person to person (by droplet spray) without intermediary transmission by flea.” Pneumonic plague is characterized by watery and sometimes bloody mucus containing live bacteria. Coughing and spitting produce airborne droplets full with the highly infectious bacteria, and by inhalation others may become infected. With pneumonic plague death can occur within 24 hours of
I was observing the spread of the plague right before my eyes. I knew how the three types of plague were transmitted but the humans did not. The three types were the Bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic plague. The Bubonic plague was the most common plague in medieval Europe. It was transmitted by infected fleas that were carried by rats, when the rat died the flea would jump to a human to feed from their blood. The human bitten by the flea, was then infected and faced certain death, the flea would then find a new human to feed off. The Pneumonic plague, being the second most common type in medieval Europe, was far more deadly and contagious than the Bubonic plague. The Plague would attack a human's respiratory system and was spread through the air by a victim's cough. The last type of plague was the Septicemic, it was the rarest and deadliest form of the Black Death. The Septicemic plague was also spread by fleas, like the Bubonic plague, but moved directly to a human's
Bacteria called Yersinia pestis caused the Bubonic plague. It was the cause for some of the wicked symptoms that normally showed within one to seven days. Some of the symptoms were general illness such as vomiting, fevers around 101-105 degrees, headaches and the enlargement of the lymph nodes in the areas
The great plague came in three different forms. The types of illness differed in symptoms, spread and sufferings. The bubonic plague was the diseases most common form. It was named this due to swelling called “buboes” of the victim’s lymph nodes. “These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple” (The Black Death). The longest expectancy with this form of illness didn’t often exceed one week. The second variation of plague was known as the “pneumatic
There are three types of plague disease and each one of them has different symptoms. The first type of plague disease, the most popular type of disease, called Bubonic plague. According to Patient Care & Health Information in Mayo Clinic, its symptoms start to appear with less than 10 days after someone got bitten by an infected flea. The symptoms start with buboes, swollen lymph nodes, appear in some places in the body like neck, groin, or armpit. Also, buboes’ size is almost like a chicken egg size. A headache, muscle ache, chills and fever are the other sings of this type of disease (2015). The other type of plague disease is a result of plague bacteria multiplies in the blood which known as Septicemic plague. According to CDC, shock,