Bubonic Plague
Plague, was a term that was used in the Middle Ages to describe all fatal epidemic diseases, but now it is only applied to an infectious, contagious disease of rodents and humans. In humans, plague occurs in three forms: , pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. The best known form is the and it is named after buboes, or enlarged, inflamed lymph nodes, which are characteristics of the plague in the groin or neck or armpit. can only be 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. If the plague is left untreated it is fatal in thirty to seventy five percent of all cases. Mortality in treated ...
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grasslands of what is now Russia, establishing a vast infected rodent population there.
In 1346 the disease reached Crimea and found its way to Europe in 1347. The outbreak in Europe was a devastating one, which resulted in more than 25 million deaths-about twenty five percent of the continent's whole population. After that the plague reappeared in many European cities until the early 18th century, when it suddenly stopped there. No explanation has ever been given for the plague's rapid disappearance.
The first symptoms of the are headache, vomiting, nausea, aching joints and a feeling of ill health. The lymph nodes of the groin or of the armpit or neck suddenly start to become swollen and painful. The pulse and respiration rate of a victim is increased, and the victim will become listless and exhausted. The buboes will swell until they are approximately the size of a chicken egg. If a case is nonfatal than the temperature will begin to fall in about five days, and returnt to ...
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blood cells to fight off whatever pathogen has entered the body.
Many preventive measures can be used to reduce the spread of the plague (sanitation, killing of rats, prevention in transport of rats). Individuals who contract the disease are isolated, fed fluids and put to bed. During World War II, scientists using sulfa drugs were able to produce cures of plague.
Since it is a bacteria, the bubonic plague can be treated with antibiotics. Tetracyline, Streptomycin, and Chloramphenicol are three of the antibiotics used to prevent plague. Sometimes, they are even mixed together. The plague can almost always be cured when it is recognized fast enough.
Since the late 19th century ...
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"Bubonic Plague." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 30 Nov. 2006. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Bubonic-Plague/56343>
"Bubonic Plague." Essayworld.com. November 30, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Bubonic-Plague/56343.
"Bubonic Plague." Essayworld.com. November 30, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Bubonic-Plague/56343.
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