Yersina Pestis, a.k.a Bubonic Plague or The Black Death, is Back.

[güttsfükk]

Plague patient in critical condition at Oregon hospital

Man was infected by bite from cat that was carrying dead mouse in mouth, say Crook county health officials

An Oregon man is in a critical condition with the plague after he was bitten while trying to remove a decaying mouse from the mouth of a stray cat.

The man, who has not been named but is in his 50s, is believed to have caught the disease that rampaged through Europe in the middle ages and is thought to have wiped out between a quarter and a third of the population. In modern times the disease is rare and treatable with antibiotics but can still be fatal.

A local report said the man developed a fever a few days after being bitten on 2 June and was admitted to Crook County hospital.

The disease is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which can develop into three kinds of plague including the bubonic plague, which swells lymph nodes across the body. The other two are septicaemic plague, which affects the bloodstream, and pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs.

The bacterium is largely transmitted via infected fleas but humans can also catch it by coming into contact with carrier animals.

Karen Yeargain, communicable disease coordinator in the Crook County health department, said the man had been initially showing classic symptoms of the disease. He is reported to have shown signs of both the bubonic and septicaemic forms.

Emilio Debess, Oregon's public health veterinarian, said there had been a number of cases of the disease reported in the state since 1934, including four people who had died.

An average of 11 cases of plague are reported in the US each year, according to the World Health Organisation, with around 1,000 to 3,000 cases worldwide.

While some believe that the black haemorrhages of the skin in the late stages of the disease gave rise to the popular name of the black death, others have said the 16th-century term is more likely a reflection of the terrible effect of the plague on medieval Europe.

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...?newsfeed=true

[güttsfükk]

Bubonic plague is a zoonotic disease, circulating mainly among small rodents and their fleas, and is one of three types of infections caused by Yersinia pestis (formerly known as Pasteurella pestis), which belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Without treatment, the bubonic plague kills about two thirds of infected humans within 4 days.

The term bubonic plague is derived from the Greek word βουβών, meaning "groin." Swollen lymph nodes (buboes) especially occur in the armpit and groin in persons suffering from bubonic plague. Bubonic plague was often used synonymously for plague, but it does in fact refer specifically to an infection that enters through the skin and travels through the lymphatics, as is often seen in flea-borne infections.

Bubonic plague—along with the septicemic plague and the pneumonic plague, which are the two other manifestations of Y. pestis—is generally believed to be the cause of the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 14th century and killed an estimated 25 million people, or 30–60% of the European population. Because the plague killed so many of the working population, wages rose and some historians have seen this as a turning point in European economic development.

An inguinal bubo on the upper thigh of person infected with bubonic plague. Swollen lymph glands (buboes) often occur in the neck, armpit and knee (inguinal) regions of plague victims




Acral necrosis of the nose, the lips, and the fingers and residual ecchymoses over both forearms in a patient recovering from bubonic plague that disseminated to the blood and the lungs. At one time, the patient's entire body was ecchymotic. Reprinted from Textbook of Military Medicine.




Bubonic plague victims in a mass grave from 1720-1721 in Martigues, France

[gatagato]

I saw this one in the news earlier today: around 1,000 to 3,000 cases worldwide, i would have never said that

[Nite]

how is the cat?

[Illusion]

Shoot the cat and burn it before it infects others!

[TheCapn]

Plagues always been around..its just that now we can cure it with a simple dose of antibiotics. We were sorta missing those during the Black Death days though.

[ices]

Originally Posted by TheCapn

Plagues always been around..its just that now we can cure it with a simple dose of antibiotics. We were sorta missing those during the Black Death days though.

And many diseases that are not as complex or old as the Black plague are becoming imune to anti biotics.

I would be worried if the plague were to mutate and combine with the common cold virus but bacterium and virus DNA makes it an unlikely scenario.

[RangaRang]

He swallowed a DeadMaus

[p4irs]

leave the katze alone!

[Faline]