Killer Disease

Transmitted by Animals to Humans

• Avian Flu or Bird's Flu

• Anthrax

• Bubonic Plague

• Leishmaniasis

• Leptospirosis

• Loiasis

• Malaria

• Onchocerciasis

• Rabies

• Rocky Mountain

• Tularemia

• Trypanosomiasis

• Yellow Fever

 

Bubonic Plague

Bubonic Plague is an epidemic disease. It is transmitted from person to person by the bite of the flies from an infected rodent. Of rodents infected rats are the main cause. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia. The symptoms are  characterized by chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and the formation of buboes.

The bacterial infection produced painful swelling of the lymph nodes called buboes.

Prior to 1970, both United States and Soviet biological weapons programs developed techniques that enabled weapons developers to aerosolize plague particles.

 Bubonic plague is popular and referred as Black Death. The plague blackens the skin due to dried blood that accumulated under skin. The first swelling of this plague is observed in the groin.

History recorded the bubonic plague as significant cause of misery and death. The first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague was in 542–543. This plague destroyed the attempts of the Roman emperor of the day to re-establish a Roman empire in Europe. This is only one example of how bubonic plague has changed the course of history.

The plague of London in 1665 killed over 17,000 people (almost twenty percent of the city's population). This outbreak was quelled by a huge fire that destroyed most of the city.

The disease remains present to this day. In North America, the last large epidemic occurred in Los Angeles in 1925. With the advent of the antibiotic era, bubonic plague has been controlled in the developed world. However, sporadic cases (e.g., 10 to 15 cases each year) still occur in the western United States. In less developed countries (e.g., in Africa, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil) thousands of cases are reported each year

We have contribute to its spread

In 1970, a World Health Organization study concluded that deliberate dissemination of 110 lbs (50 kg) of aerosolized Y pestis over a city with a population of approximately 5 million people could potentially result in 150,000 cases of pneumonic plague. Half of these cases would require advanced medical care and approximately 20% would be expected to perish.

Prevention

The most effective way to prevent bubonic plague is the maintenance of adequate sanitary conditions. This acts to control the rodent population, especially in urban centers.