Essay Yersinia pestis - Bacteria Virulence and Symptoms

The Black Plague was a bubonic disease that ravaged the streets of Europe during the 1300’s. The disease was caused by yersinia pestis from fleas on rats. The disease would cause its victims to acquire a black tongue, open skin sores, develop acral necrosis, and die in the matter of days. This plague originally started in China but spread to Europe through biological warfare. The Mongols launched infected bodies at their enemies and sent them fleeing back to Europe.

The Black Death was a plague that was spread around England from 1348-1349. The plague is an infectious disease that is caused by Yersinia Pestis, which is a bacteria that is found in mainly rodents, especially fleas and rats. The “Black Death” killed about one-third of the population in Europe during the 1300’s, which were about twenty to thirty million people. The bacteria can affect people three different ways: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague.

This has led modern day scientists to believe that Yersinia pestis has evolved and strengthened over time and is strong enough to survive in many different environments and hosts.??-12 Early symptoms included headaches, overall weakness, a white coating on the tongue followed by large swellings in the groin and armpit area that oozed blood and pus. This was followed by other symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, pain, hemorrhaging under the skin, excessive sneezing, and then the nervous system breaks down, death.??-5 The term “God bless you” originated from Pope Gregory VII when someone sneezes as plague victims are constantly sneezing and spreading germs.??-12 From the onset of the plague to death is only about five days. A popular nursery rhyme depicts the course of the

The Middle Ages were a very dark time, education became very unimportant and people were forced to live in very close quarters and, consequently, hygiene was atrocious and it made the perfect place for Yersinia Pestis to thrive. Yersinia Pestis is the virus responsible for the Black Death, a deadly disease that rapidly powered through Europe, killing nearly everyone in its way. The Black Death had many gruesome and scary symptoms that made bystanders sick just watching. Some people were more likely to get the Black Death than others. Because peasants had worse living conditions than the nobility, they were far more likely to catch the Plague. The history of the Plague and its track is very surprising to most people and when you see just how

The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the “unholy trinity” (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried).

Bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and the septicemic plague. People become infected with the bubonic plague when bitten by the flea, which infects the immune system and causes inflammation. Leaving it untreated leads to the pneumonic or septicemic plague. Pneumonic plague is when the bacteria reaches the lungs, it is the most harmful version of the Black Death; airborne transmitted like coughing, sneezing and spitting, which causes whoever breathing the air to also contract the pneumonic plague. The septicemic plague is when the bacteria directly infiltrates the bloodstream and then Yersinia pestis would spread throughout the blood. The bubonic and pneumonic plague can lead to the septicemic plague when it's not

Yertinsa pestis, or Black death was one of the worst natural disasters in history. It killed a worldwide count of 155-220 million people. It is believed to have been one of the first cases of biological warfare when the Mongols catapulted the dead bodies infected with Yersinia Pestis over the city walls, into the city of Caffa, Crimea, an area which they were at war with..

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

Plague is a very deadly bacterial disease. It has been a recurring force that has wiped out much of the world’s population during it’s outbreaks. The bacteria that is responsible for one of history’s most deadly diseases is Yersinia pestis. Yersinia pestis first infectes a rat. The rat is then the host for a flea. The flea feeds on the blood of the rat which is infected by the bacteria. For a reason still unknown today the bacteria started multiplying in the flea blocking it 's stomach. This caused the flea to throw up the infected rats blood into the human when it feeds on it.

Yersinia Pestis, an infectious agent is the cause of the Bubonic Plague. Yersina Pestis is a bacteria, which means the cells lack the internal organization of eukaryotic cells. These bacteria cells would contain the membrane but they would not be able to subdivide the inside of the cell. These bacteria cells do not have a nucleus so instead they have a nucleiod that contains genetic material. The two types of bacteria cells are gram-negative and gram-positive. Yersina Pestis is gram negative and that means that antibiotics are less effective on the plague because of a lipopolysaccharide layer over their walls that adds extra protection.

The bacteria found in the Black Plague is known as Yersinia pestis that is a bipolar and plump, lightly-staining, coccobacillus. Remaining a dangerous threat even today as well as what was previously stated that it is a plausible agent for bioterrorism. And as stated, areas such as America, Asia, and Africa are foci endemic areas. Where wild rodents, such as squirrels and rats, are the sustenance pushing for the spread and infection of the disease. The transmission being from animal-to-animal through fleas and infection to humans through contact or bites. Instances of human-to-human infection are uncommon except for the pneumonic plague, the disease caused by plague bacillus also known as Y pestis. The germ was named after Alexander Yersin who had discovered it in 1894 during a pandemic in China that started in1860. Causing numerous casualties by how fast and effective the disease was spreading, it had seemed that there was no end in

Virulence Factors: The most important virulence factor of S. aureus is the specific surface proteins that allow the organism to attach to host proteins. The surface proteins of this bacterium allow it to attach to host proteins such as laminin and fibronectin, which form the extracellular matrix of epithelial and endothelial cells. S. aureus also produces a number of membrane damaging toxins that allow the organism to further invade and harm the host, of which the alpha- toxin is the most well studied and is the protein responsible for septic shock. The alpha- toxin is a protein that binds to a specific receptor in platelets and monocytes in humans, forming pores that eventually destroy the cell.

During the 1330s there was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, Its first out of three appearances. The bubonic plague is also known as The Black Death plague because of the symptom, gangrene, which cause blackness of the extremities. The bubonic plague is an infectious-bacterial disease which classifies as proteobacterial, the pathogen Yersinia pestis is responsible for causing the bubonic plague as well as pneumonic and specticemic, Yersinia pathogen is a gram negative, rod shaped and non-spore forming bacteria.

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

What is the plague? The plague or referred to as the Black Death, according to the CDC (2015), “is a disease that affects humans and other mammals and caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Humans usually get plague after being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium or by handling an animal infected with plague”. There are three categories of a plague. There is the bubonic plague, which is the most common form. With this form bacteria infects the lymph system and causes it to become inflamed. Symptoms of this type of plague are fever, headache, chills, and swollen and tender lymph nodes, which are called buboes. Then there is the Septicemic, which occurs when the bacteria multiply in the blood. Symptoms of this type of plague are fever, chills, extreme weakness, abdominal pain, shock, and possibly bleeding into the skin and other organs. Also, skin and other tissues may turn black and die, especially fingers, toes and the nose (CDC, 2015). Then there is the Pneumonic Plague, which is the most serious form of plague and occurs when Y. pestis bacteria infect the lungs and cause pneumonia (NIH, 2015). This is the only form of the plague that can be transmitted human to human. Symptoms of this form of the plague are ever, headache, weakness, and a rapidly