Bubonic Plague The Black Death or bubonic plague -- officially known as Yersina pestis -- killed a third of Europe's population in the 14th century, and it still exists in some parts of the world today. It has a long history as a bioweapon: accounts of the Mongol siege of the Crimean city of Caffa in 1347 say the invaders catapulted the corpses of infected people over the walls. And it isn't just a medieval phenomenon; the last major outbreak in the United States was in 1900 in San Francisco and involved 121 people of which 113 died; cases have appeared sporadically since. The plague is transmitted by fleas, which incubate the bacterium in their gullets. The multiplying Yersina block blood from getting to the fleas' stomachs, and the starving fleas start to feed more aggressively and try to clear the blockage by regurgitating the bacteria. That transmits the disease to hosts, including humans. Symptoms appear in two to six days. The infection causes the lymph nodes to swell (the "buboes"), but sometimes the bacteria invades the bloodstream directly and causes flu-like symptoms, without the swollen lymph nodes. In either case, mortality rates can be 40 to 60 percent if untreated. Infection of the lungs is the most serious form. The patient will cough up bloody sputum and droplets that help spread the disease person-to-person, and unless treated quickly mortality can approach 100 percent. The Black Death is treatable with antibiotics such as streptomycin now, but a resistant strain could be a serious public health problem.
Centers for Disease Control
[From article]
Madagascar said Monday it was trying to contain an outbreak of plague -- similar to the Black Death that swept medieval Europe -- that has killed 47 people and is spreading to the capital Antananarivo.
Bubonic Plague: Still Here, Still Killing People
"The plague" has been taking lives in the most gruesome of ways for thousands of years. And guess what: It's still here.
The health ministry said there had been 138 suspected cases since the beginning of the year and warned that the death toll was likely to rise in coming months.
Two people have been infected in Antananarivo, one of them dying, and health workers have mounted a pest control campaign through slum areas around the city, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Plague is spread by fleas and mostly affects rats, but humans can also contract the disease if they are bitten by a disease-carrying flea.
The bubonic form prompts swelling of the lymph node, but can be treated with antibiotics. The pneumonic version, affecting the lungs, can be spread from person to person through coughing and can kill within 24 hours.
Resistant fleas
The situation in Madagascar is all the more worrying because of a high level of resistance to insecticides targeting fleas, the U.N. health agency said.
[. . .]
The Black Death, otherwise known as the bubonic plague, is estimated to have killed some 25 million people across Europe in the Middle Ages.
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Bubonic Plague Spreads in Madagascar
NOV 25, 2014 11:27 AM ET // BY AFP
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