The Plague/ The Black Death Flashcards
Plague - Symptoms
- incubation of 2-6 days, death in ~2-4 days
- patients experience sudden onset of fever, chills, headaches, muscle pain, weakness
- painful swellings (buboes) of the lymph nodes in the armpits, legs, neck, or groin
- high fever, delirium and mental deterioration, large blackish pustules that burst, vomiting of blood, bleeding in the lungs
Plague Pandemic - The Plague of Justinian
- the first pandemic
- named after the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian
- started in the 6th century (541-542 AD)
- caused by Yersinia pestis
- spread to the Mediterranian, Italy and throughout Europe
- ~50% of the population is estimated to have died
- continued in cycles for another 200 years until about 750 AD then disappears for ~800 years
- estimated to have killed 100 million people
Yersinia - bacteria type and shape
- gram negative, rod shaped
Yersinia - Name three species that are pathogenic for humans
Y. enterocolitica
Y. pseudotuberculosis
Y. pestis
Y. enterocolitica
causes “yersiniosis” – a rare cause of diarrhea and abdominal pain
Y. pseudotuberculosis
primarily an animal pathogen that can cause tuberculosis-like symptoms in animals, enteritis in humans
Y. pestis
- cause of the plague
- discovered by Alexandre Yersin in 1894
- pestis –> pestilence (contagious or infectious epidemic disease)
- an extraordinarily virulent pathogen
- may causes death in 2-4 days by sepsis and/or overwhelming pneumonia with respiratory failure
- NOT an efficient colonizer of humans
What nursery rhyme is based on the Black death?
Ring-a-round-a-rosie
Plague Pandemics - The Black Death
- the second pandemic
- a medieval pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis
- originated in Asia and reached Europe in the late 1340s
- reduced the global population from ~450 million to ~350 million
- killed ~25 million Europeans (1/3 of the total population)
- European social order, family structure, agriculture, military and feudal system were destroyed
When did the Black death occur?
1348, a time when there was no real treatment and the feat turned to panic
What did people believe was the cause of the pandemic?
- God’s anger or Satan’s influence
What is the Feudal System
- Political and Social structure prevalent in Europe
- little opportunity for advancement
- a few people had everything, most had little
- Plague created vacant towns and farms, positions of authority need to be filled
- demand for physicians, clergy, gravediggers
- provided new opportunities for the peasants
Did Y. pestis really cause the Black Death? What is the evidence?
Re-sequenced the bacteria of teeth of the people that have died in that time (from cemetery)
It did cause it
The one of Justinian was a different strain, eventually bacteria killed all of its hosts and it ended up dying off
Where do Yersinia pestis live and how are they transmitted?
- organisms live in rodents and are transmitted by fleas
- a “zoonotic” pathogen
- Y. pestis causes “blocking” in the flea
- biofilm formation in the proventriculus
- “starving fleas”
- causes regurgitation of organisms
Where do Yersinia pestis live and how are they transmitted?
- organisms live in rodents and are transmitted by fleas
- a “zoonotic” pathogen
- Y. pestis causes “blocking” in the flea
- biofilm formation in the proventriculus organ
- “starving fleas” because fleas cannot take the blood meal to its stomach
- causes regurgitation of organisms as they continue to bit other organisms
