Bubonic Plague The Black Death Essay

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Disease name: Plague, Bubonic Plague, The Black Death. There are three forms of the plague. The first is the Bubonic form, the second is the pneumonic form, and the third is the septicemic form. (1) Means of Transmission: 1. The bubonic form is transmitted by being bitten by a flea, which has previously bitten an infected animal, most commonly a rat, but also dogs, cats, mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, and other small rodents. 2. The pneumatic form is spread person to person by inhaling small droplets released as an aerosol when an infected person coughs, or even breaths. 3. The septicemic form is spread when an open sore or cut on a person comes into contact with the body fluids of an infected person. (1,2,3)…show more content…
The plaque is found in the indigenous wildlife of every continent except Australia. The pneumonic and septicemic forms reservoirs are infected animals and people, and are almost never anything except an infected person. (3,4,5) Etiologic Agent: Believed to be Yersinia pestis. The may be some question of whether this is the true cause of the plague. There are questions as to how and where it spread, especially to the far northern regions. No one has yet been able to isolate Y. pestis from the bodies of plague victims. (8) General Characteristics: A gram negative, facilitative aerobe, facilitative intracellular, pleomorphic rod/cocci found in short chains or a characteristic safety pin form, with/with out a loose envelope. Y. pestis has a 4,650,000 bp genome, with three plasmids, pFra (96,200 bp), Ppst (9,500 bp), and pYV (70,000 bp). (15,16) Diagnosis: Key tests/signs are: presence of buboes, blood and lymph cultures, Lysed by a particular bacteriaphage, an agglutination titer of 1:128 for the F1 protein, a pair of serum agglutinations that have a fourfold anti F1 antigen titer, and lymph node aspirate.

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