Bubonic plague

Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague, and is characterized by swollen, tender, inflamed lymph glands (called buboes); other forms are Septicemic plague, which occurs when plague bacteria multiply in the blood, and Pneumonic plague, which occurs when the lungs are infected.

Infection/transportation

Bubonic plague is primarily a disease of rodents, particularly marmots (in which the most virulent strains of plague are primarily found), but also black rats, prairie dogs, chipmunks, squirrels and other similar large rodents. Human infection most often occurs when a person is bitten by a rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopsis) that has fed on an infected rodent. The bacillus multiplies in the stomach of the flea, blocking it. When the flea next bites a mammal, blood consumed by the flea is regurgitated along with the bacillus into the bloodstream of the bitten animal. Any serious outbreak of plague is started by other disease outbreaks in the rodent population. During these outbreaks, infected fleas that have lost their normal hosts seek other sources of blood.

Related Topics:
Rodent - Marmot - Black rat - Prairie dog - Chipmunk - Squirrel - Human - Bitten - Rat flea - Mammal

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In 1894, bacteriologists Alexandre Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasato independently isolated the responsible bacterium and Yersin further determined that rodents were the likely common mode of transmission. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

Related Topics:
1894 - Alexandre Yersin - Shibasaburo Kitasato - Bacterium - Yersinia pestis

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