THE BLACK PLAGUE

THE BLACK PLAGUE

The Plague is a word that horrified much of the population over the centuries around the globe. It is no less fearful a word today. This term describes several diseases; the three most common forms are known as the Bubonic Plague, Septicemia, and Pneumonic. Plague pneumonia, or pneumonic plague, is caused by the same bacteria as bubonic plague but is acquired by inhaling infected droplets from the lungs of someone whose plague infection has spread to the respiratory system. This is the most contagious form of the disease and the form that progresses most rapidly, with death usually occurring in less than three days in virtually all untreated cases.   The bubonic plague is by far the most familiar form of the diseases.   The initial appearance of the bubonic plague resulted in major changes to European society. People called it "The Black Death" because of the red-black spots it produced on the skin. A terrible killer was loose across Europe, and medieval medicine had nothing to combat it.
The Bubonic plague is an acute infection in humans and various species of rodents, caused by Yersinia pestis a bacterium transmitted by fleas that have fed on the blood of infected rodents, usually rats. The ingested plague bacteria multiply in the flea's upper digestive tract and eventually obstruct it. When the flea feeds again on a human or another rodent, the obstruction causes the freshly ingested blood to be regurgitated back into the bite, along with plague bacteria. The circulatory system of the bitten individual then carries the bacteria throughout the body.  
The first signs of illness in humans appear suddenly, within about a week.   In a few hours the body temperature rises to about 40 degrees C (104 degrees F), and the victim becomes gravely ill, experiencing vomiting, muscular pain, mental disorganization, and delirium. The bacteria invades the lymph nodes in an area close to the bite causing visible swelling that will also be painful.   The lymph nodes throughout the...