Plague

Plague THE BUBONIC PLAGUE Rana Kundu Introduction Plague, was a term that was applied in the Middle Ages to all fatal epidemic diseases, but now it is only applied to an acute, infectious, contagious disease of rodents and humans, caused by a short, thin, gram-negative bacillus. In humans, plague occurs in three forms: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. The best known form is the bubonic plague and it is named after buboes, or enlarged, inflamed lymph nodes, which are characteristics of the plague in the groin or neck or armpit. Bubonic plague 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 cases is only five to ten percent. History Of The Bubonic Plague The origin of the bubonic plague is unknown but it may have started in Africa or India. Colonies of infected rats were established in Northern India, many years ago. Some of these rodents had infected traders on the route between the Middle East and China. After 1330 the plague had invaded plague, bubonic, , doctors, bacteria, spread, rats, nodes, lymph, cells, lymphatic, infected, host, fleas, disease, body, because, yersina, system, rodents, pestis, people, five, england, century, victims, vaccination, transport, transmission, traders, struck, rodent, preventive, percent, outbreak