Bubonic Plague Essays (1110 words) - Plague, Second Plague Pandemic

Bubonic Plague Bubonic Plague Just mention the name and you will send shivers down the spine of many people. There is no doubt that this disease was deadly. Deadly and gruesome to watch. The death rate was 90% for those exposed to the bacterium. It was transmitted by the fleas from infected Old English black rats. The symptoms were clear: swollen lymph nodes (buboes, hence the name), high fever, and delirium. In the worst case, the lungs became infected and the pneumonic form was spread from person to person by coughing, sneezing, or simply talking. From the time of infection to death was less than one week. There were three major epidemics - in the 6th, 14th, and 17th centuries. The death toll was 137 million victims. As a result, the plague is considered to be the worst epidemic of all time Black Death Plague is a term applied randomly in the Middle Ages to all fatal epidemic diseases, but now restricted to an acute, infectious, contagious disease of rodents and humans, caused by a short, thick bacillus, Yersinia pestis. In humans, plague occurs in three forms: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. Bubonic plague is the best-known form and is so called because it is characterized by the appearance of buboes, in the groin or armpit or on the neck. Bubonic plague is transmitted by the bite of any of numerous insects that are normally parasitic on rodents, and that seek new hosts when the original host dies. The most important of these insects is the rat flea Xenopsylla cheopis, which is parasitic on the brown rat. Untreated bubonic plague is fatal in 30 to 75 percent of all cases. The Black Death, the name later given to the plague, ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, taking a great toll of life. Modern research confirms the estimate of the chronicler Jean Froissart that about one-third of the population died. Originating in China and Turkestan, the plague was transmitted to Europeans when a Kipchak army catapulted plague-infested corpses into the town. The Plague spread from the Mediterranean ports, affecting Sicily, North Africa, Italy, Spain, France , Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and England, and Scandinavia and the Baltic lands.There were recurrences in 1361-63, 1369-71, 1374-75, 1390, and 1400. In bubonic plague, the first symptoms are headache, nausea, vomiting, aching joints, and a general feeling of ill health. The lymph nodes of the groin or, less commonly, of the armpit or neck, suddenly become painful and swollen. The temperature, accompanied by shivering, rises to between 101? and 105? F. The pulse rate and respiration rate are increased, and the victim becomes exhausted and apathetic. The buboes swell until they approximate a chicken egg in size. In nonfatal cases, the temperature begins to fall in about five days, and approaches normal in about two weeks. In fatal cases, death results in about four days. The purple color, which appears in all plague victims during their last hours, is due to respiratory failure; the popular name Black Death that is applied to the disease is derived from this symptom. Many preventive measures, such as sanitation, killing of rats, and prevention of the transport of rats in ships arriving from ports in which the disease is endemic, are effective in reducing the incidence of plague. Famine, which reduces resistance to the disease, results in spread of plague. Individuals who have contracted the disease are isolated, put to bed, and fed fluids and easily digestible foods. Sedatives are used to reduce pain and to quiet delirium. During World War II, scientists using sulfa drugs were able to produce cures of plague; subsequently, streptomycin and tetracycline were found to be more effective in controlling the disease. The coming of the Black Death, when in just two years perhaps one third to one half of Europe's population was destroyed, marks a watershed in Medieval and Renaissance European History. Bubonic plague had been absent from Western Europe for nearly a millenium when it appeared in 1348. The reaction was immediate and devastating. Up to two thirds of the population of many of the major European cities succumbed to the plague in the first two years. Government, trade and commerce virtually came to