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Plague, one of the deadliest bacterial infections in human history, caused an estimated 50 million deaths in Europe during the Middle Ages when it was known as the Black Death.
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. [2] Symptoms include fever, weakness and headache. [1] Usually this begins one to seven days after exposure. [2] There are three forms of plague, each affecting a different part of the body and causing associated symptoms.
The plague is considered the likely cause of the Black Death that swept through Asia, Europe, and Africa in the 14th century and killed an estimated 50 million people, [1] [10] including about 25% to 60% of the European population. [1] [11] Because the plague killed so many of the working population, wages rose due to the demand for labor. [11]
The plague can also spread through the respiratory droplets of a patient who has pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is the most deadly and easiest to spread, with a nearly 100% fatality rate untreated, said Lisa Morici, a microbiologist and immunologist in the Tulane University School of Medicine.
The bubonic plague still exists, but because it's treatable with antibiotics and its spread can be limited by rodent and flea control, it has become a rare condition — fewer than 20 cases ...
The bubonic plague was the most commonly seen form during the Black Death. The bubonic form of the plague has a mortality rate of thirty to seventy-five percent and symptoms include fever of 38–41 °C (101–105 °F), headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise.
References to 'the plague' call to mind medieval times, and it really isn't far from that.
Pneumonic plague can be caused in two ways: primary, which results from the inhalation of aerosolized plague bacteria, or secondary, when septicemic plague spreads into lung tissue from the bloodstream. Pneumonic plague is not exclusively vector-borne like bubonic plague; instead, it can be spread from person to person. There have been cases of ...