Bubonic Plague

GuanYin

I saw my first case of bubonic plague today. I would or could never have imagined that I'd ever see it.

Thats one of those diseases that you never ever think you'll see.
Easily treated these days thankfully, hard to believe it wiped out a third of europe.

Son Goku

Wow, cool! How rare quantitatively is it these days?

DrIndy

its not unknown in india, but is largely consigned to history in europe since the norwegian brown rat invaded across europe and pushed out the smaller, plague carrying black rat....

InFront

Where did you see this, psi, presumably out of Europe? I think India was just a once off (in the past few decades anyway), I don't think I've heard of it anywhere else before, sounds like an exciting find!

GuanYin

Colorado, USA.

We have a problem with it among the rodent population here, although it hasn't been this bad in nearly half a century, was only a matter of time before we got a human case.

By all accounts, the vets are having a nightmare.

Robbiethe3rd

out of interest arent they now starting to think the plague is spread from human to human as the second person in England to catch it was a relative of the person who first caught it which would imply it was transfered between people, (if it were passed only from human to rodent then there would be a random pattern as the rat(s) would spread through the town and pass it to anybody).

Anyone know anything about this?

GuanYin

Robbiethe3rd wrote:

out of interest arent they now starting to think the plague is spread from human to human as the second person in England to catch it was a relative of the person who first caught it which would imply it was transfered between people, (if it were passed only from human to rodent then there would be a random pattern as the rat(s) would spread through the town and pass it to anybody).

Anyone know anything about this?

It depends on the way the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis infects.

Bubonic plague is transmitted through flea bites and it's by far the most common form of plague.

If the bacteria makes it to the lungs, which can happen if a person comes into close contact (and inhales) Y. pestis infected liquid or aerosol, then you get pneumonic plague, which, yes, can be spread through direct contact.

It's uncommon and doesn't commonly spread (unless you get an epidemic).

InFront

Robbiethe3rd wrote:

the second person in England to catch it was a relative of the person who first caught it

They know who the first person to catch it in England was?! Which time period was this?

Capt'n Midnight

psi wrote:

If the bacteria makes it to the lungs, which can happen if a person comes into close contact (and inhales) Y. pestis infected liquid or aerosol, then you get pneumonic plague, which, yes, can be spread through direct contact.

pneumonic plague is a fast killer isn't it ?

GuanYin

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

pneumonic plague is a fast killer isn't it ?

Well it's the same pathogen, the difference is how it enters and where it attacks the body.

Pneumonic plague is basically a direct attack on the lungs, which is obviously going to have rapidly disasterous effects. The texts say 2 days if untreated, but I've never seen it, so I can only go on that. Bubonic plague is about double that, depending on the person. The fastest would be Septicemic Plague, which is direct entry of the bacteria into the blood stream, most diagnosis for this are through postmortem, seeing as death is usually quicker than the immune systems response (which indicate symptoms).