Bubonic Plague By Patrick Cobb Yersinia Pestis
History First seen in China in the 1330's Spread to Europe and Eastern Asia through trading Led to the infamous Black Death Killed 25 million people in just five years The nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosy” came from this disease
How You Get it The bacteria Yersinia Pestis infects rodents, which are reservoir hosts ( Rats, mice, etc.) Fleas bite those rodents and then bite humans, giving us the disease Spreads fast and is hard to avoid No “safe haven” away from this disease
Affects/Symptoms Lymph nodes near bite become swollen, painful and hot to the touch Fever head ache and exhaustion Chills and a fever of up 106 degrees If treatment does not occur within twenty four hours of symptoms first appearing, death will most likely occur
What Happens? Evades the first part of our immune system It is almost injected into you by the insect Before the hosts specific antibacterial response can react, they will most likely have died On its own our body can not protect us from this disease
Prevention Currently no vaccine for this disease Drug therapy Public health education Environmental management
Treatment The best cure for this disease is to prevent it from happening Antibiotics can be used to treat an infected person 85% of treated patients will survive However, the disease may kill someone before serious symptoms occur
Works Cited http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/ http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html Diseases Volume 6 Merck Manual of Medical information http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH00 01622/