
#REDIRECT Bubonic plague
Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague which is characterized by swollen, tender inflamed Lymph nodes (called buboes); other forms are Septicemic plague which occurs when plague bacterium multiply in the blood and Pneumonic plague which occurs when the lungs are infected. == Infection/transportation == It is primarily a disease of rodents, particularly marmots (in which the most virulent strains of plague are primarily found), but also black rats, prairie dogs, chipmunks, squirrels and other similar large rodents. Human infection most often occurs when a person is bite (medicine) by a flea that has previously fed on an infected rodent. In 1896, bacteriologist Alexandre Emile John Yersin isolated the responsible bacterium and determined the common mode of transmission. The disease is caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis'' and is usually transmitted by the bite of fleas from an infected host, often a black rat. The bacteria are transferred from the blood of infected rats to the rat flea (''Xenopsylla cheopsis''). The bacillus multiplies in the stomach of the flea, blocking it. When the flea next bites a mammal, the consumed blood is regurgitated along with the bacillus into the bloodstream of the bitten animal. Any serious outbreak of plague is started by other disease outbreaks in the rodent population. During these outbreaks, infected fleas that have lost their normal hosts seek other sources of blood. == Symptoms and treatment == The disease becomes evident 2–7 days after infection. Initial symptoms are chills, fever, headaches, and the formation of buboes. The buboes are formed by the infection of the lymph nodes, which swell and become prominent. If unchecked, the bacteria infects the bloodstream (septicemic plague), which can progress to the lungs (pneumonic plague). In septicemia plague there is bleeding into the skin and other organs, which creates black patches on the skin, hence the name Black Death. Untreated septicemic plague is universally fatal, but early treatment with antibiotics is effective (usually streptomycin or gentamicin), reducing the mortality rate to around 15% (USA 1980s). People who die from this form of plague often die on the same day that symptoms first appear. With pneumonia plague infecting lungs came the possibility of person-to-person transmission through respiratory droplets. The incubation period for pneumonic plague is usually between two to four days, but can be as little as a few hours. The initial symptoms of headache, weakness, and coughing with hemoptysis are indistinguishable from other respiratory illnesses. Without diagnosis and treatment the infection can be fatal in one to six days; mortality in untreated cases may be as high as 95%. The disease can be effectively treated with antibiotics. == Historical epidemics == The first Western literary account of a possible outbreak of plague is found in the book of Samuel V of the Hebrew Bible. In this account, the Philistines of Ashdod were struck with a plague for the crime of stealing the Ark of the Covenant from the Children of Israel. These events have been dated to approximately the second half of the eleventh century B.C. The word "hemorrhoids" is used in English language translations to describe the sores which came upon the Philistines. The Hebrew language, however, can be interpreted as "swelling in the secret parts". The account indicates that the Philistine city and its political territory was struck with both a "ravaging of mice" and a plague, bringing death to a large segment of the population. In the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C.), Thucydides described the coming of an epidemic disease which began in Ethiopia, passed through Egypt and Libya, and then came to the Greek world. Athens was decimated by Plague_of_Athens, losing a possible third of the populace, including Pericles (Speilvogal, J, 1999, pp. 56). This, in spite of the loss in population, had no consequent effect on the progress and outcome of the war. This epidemic has long been considered an outbreak of bubonic plague. However, from Thucydides' description, some modern scholars dispute the assignment of plague, feeling that smallpox or measles may be better candidates. In the first century AD, Rufus of Ephesus, a Greek anatomist, refers to an outbreak of plague in Libya, Egypt, and Syria. He records that Alexandrian doctors named Dioscorides and Posidonius described symptoms which included acute fever, pain, agitation and delirium. Buboes, large, hard and non-suppurating, developed behind the knees, around the elbows and "in the usual places." The death toll of those infected was very high. Rufus also wrote that similar buboes were reported by a Dionysius Curtus, who may have practiced medicine in Alexandria in the third century B.C. If this is correct, the eastern Mediterranean world may have been familiar with bubonic plague at that early date. (ref. Simpson, W.J., Patrick, A.) The last significant European outbreak occurred in Russia in A.D. 1877–1889 in rural areas near the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea. This outbreak is sometimes seen as an extension of the Third Pandemic (see below). Efforts in hygiene and patient isolation reduced the spread of the disease, with approximately 420 deaths in the region. Significantly, the region of Vetlianka in this area is near a population of the "bobak", a type of small marmot considered a very dangerous plague reservoir. == Historical pandemics == ===Plague of Justinian=== :''For more complete information, see Plague of Justinian.'' :''See also Climate changes of 535-536''. The Plague of Justinian is the first known pandemic on record, and it also marks the first firmly recorded pattern of bubonic plague in A.D. 541–542. This outbreak may have originated in Ethiopia or Egypt. The huge city of Constantinople imported massive amounts of grain to feed its citizens, mostly from Egypt. The grain ships may have been the original source of contagion for the city, with massive public granaries nurturing the rat and flea population. At its peak, the plague was killing 5,000 people in Constantinople every day and ultimately killed perhaps 40 percent of the city's inhabitants. It went on to destroy up to a quarter of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean. A second major plague wave in A.D. 588 spread through the Mediterranean into what is now France. A maximum figure of 25 million dead is considered a fairly reasonable estimate. ===Black Death=== :''For more complete information, see Black Death.'' [[image:Doktorschnabel 430px.jpg|thumb|250px|"Doktor Schnabel von Rom" (English: "Doctor Beak from Rome") engraving by Paul Fürst (after J Columbina). The beak is a primitive gas mask, stuffed with substances thought to ward off the plague.]] During the mid-1300s, the Black Death, a massive and deadly epidemic swept through Eurasia, killing one-third of the population by some estimates, and subsequently changing the course of both Asian and European history. The 200 million people who died was the largest death toll from any known epidemic of any disease. Many scientists and historians believe that this outbreak was an incidence of bubonic plague. A strong presence of the more contagious pneumonic and septicemic varieties increased the pace of infection and led to the spread of the disease deep into the inland areas of the continents. Plague continued to strike parts of Europe throughout the 1400s, 1500s and 1600s with varying degrees of intensity and fatality. Researchers still do not agree on why large outbreaks of the infection have never returned to Europe. However, changes in hygiene habits and strong efforts toward public health and sanitation probably had a significant impact on the survival of the disease. ===Third Pandemic=== :''For more complete information see Third Pandemic.'' The Third Pandemic began in China in 1855, spreading the bubonic plague to all inhabited continents, and ultimately killing more than 12 million people in India and China alone. Casualty patterns indicate that waves of this pandemic may have been from two different sources. The first was primarily bubonic and was carried around the world through ocean going trade, through transporting infected persons, rats and cargos harboring fleas. The second, more virulent strain, was primarily pneumonic in character with a strong person to person contagion. This strain was largely confined to Manchuria and Mongolia. Researchers during the "Third Pandemic" identified plague vectors and the plague bacillus, leading in time to modern treatment methods. == Plague as a biological weapon == Plague has a long history as a biological weapon. Historical accounts from medieval Europe detail the use of infected animal carcasses, by Mongols, Turks and other groups, to infect enemy water supplies. Plague victims were also reported to have been tossed by catapult into cities under siege. During World War II, the Japanese Army developed weaponized plague based on the breeding and release of large numbers of fleas. During the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, civilians and prisoners of war were deliberately infected with the plague bacillus. These subjects, called "logs", were then studied by dissection, some while still living and conscious. After World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed means of weaponizing pneumonic plague. Experiments included various delivery methods, vacuum drying, sizing the bacillus, developing strains resistant to antibiotics, combining the bacillus with other diseases, such as diptheria, and genetic engineering. Scientists who worked in USSR bio-weapons programs have stated that the Soviet effort was formidable and that large stocks of weaponized plague bacillus were produced. Information on many of the Soviet projects is largely unavailable. Aerosolized pneumonic plague remains the most significant threat.[http://www.vnh.org/BIOCASU/9.html][http://www.biohazardnews.net/agent_plague.shtml] == Contemporary cases == The disease still exists in wild animal populations from the Caucasus Mountains east across southern and central Russia, to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and parts of China; in Southwest Asia and Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and East Africa (including the island of Madagascar); and in North America from the Pacific ocean eastward to the western Great Plains, and from British Columbia south to Mexico; and in South America in two areas—the Andes mountains and Brazil. There is no plague-infected animal population in Europe or Australia. Globally, the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 human cases of plague every year. == References == * de Carvalho, Raimundo Wilson; Serra-Freire, Nicolau Maués; Linardi, Pedro Marcos; de Almeida, Adilson Benedito; and da Costa, Jeronimo Nunes (2001). [http://memorias.ioc.fiocruz.br/965/4152.html Small Rodents Fleas from the Bubonic Plague Focus Located in the Serra dos Órgãos Mountain Range, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]. ''Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz'' 96(5), 603–609. PMID 11500756. ''this manuscript reports a census of potential plague vectors (rodents and fleas) in a Brazilian focus region (i.e. region associated with cases of disease); free PDF download'' Retrieved 2005-03-02 * Gregg, Charles T. ''Plague!: The shocking story of a dread disease in America today''. New York, NY: Scribner, 1978, ISBN 0684153726. * Kelly, John. ''The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2005. ISBN 0060006927. * McNeill, William H. ''Plagues and People''. New York: Anchor Books, 1976. ISBN 0385121229. * Orent, Wendy. ''Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease''. New York: Free Press, 2004. ISBN 0743236858. * Patrick, Adam. "Disease in Antiquity: Ancient Greece and Rome," in ''Diseases in Antiquity'', editors: Don Brothwell and A. T. Sandison. Springfield, Illinois; Charles C. Thomas, 1967. * Simpson, W. J. ''A Treatise on Plague''. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1905. * Speilvogal, Jackson J. ''Western Civilization: A Brief History Vol. 1: to 1715''. Belmont, Calif.: West/Wadsworth, 1999, Ch. 3, p. 56, paragraph 2. ISBN 0534560628. == In literature == * ''The Decameron'' by Giovanni Boccaccio (1350). Takes place in Florence in 1348, during the outbreak of the "Black Death", widely believed to be Bubonic Plague. * ''The Plague'' by Albert Camus (1947). An existentialism novel centered around an outbreak of the plague. * ''A Journal of the Plague Year'' by Daniel Defoe (1722). A fictional first hand account of the London outbreak of 1665. * ''Doomsday Book'' by Connie Willis (1992). A Hugo award and Nebula award-winning historical science fiction novel, in which a time-traveler inadvertently ends up in the plague-ridden England of 1348. ==See also== *Black Death *Epidemics *Medieval demography *Plague *Plague of Justinian *Third Pandemic ==External links== *World Health Organization **[http://www.who.int/topics/plague/en/ Health topic] **[http://www.who.int/csr/disease/plague/en/ Communicable Disease Surveillance & Response] - Impact of plague & Information resources *Centers for Disease Control and Prevention **[http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/index.htm CDC Plague] map world distribution, publications, information on bioterrorism preparedness and response regarding plague **[http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/submenus/sub_plague.htm Infectious Disease Information] more links including travelers' health *[http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic428.htm Symptoms, causes, pictures of bubonic plague] Diseases Epidemics Pandemics simple:Bubonic plague vi:Dịch hạch
Hmm. I don't think plague should redirect here. There have been plagues of other things—and not just infectious diseases. What about the Biblical plagues of Egypt, for instance? (See Seder#The Third Telling). —User:Mulad 17:18, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC) *Interesting point, but in the minds of most English-speakers, the word "plague" would bring to mind the biblical plagues and the bubonic plague. The latter, however, is ''the'' plague. Perhaps a link at the top would be appropriate -- I would add it, but I don't know what the name of the article is where biblical plagues are discussed. User:Jonathan Grynspan (On a sidenote, can anyone explain the relationship of Doctor Beak is to the article? I don't get it, silly me.) **Re: Doctor Beak: I wondered that myself, so I looked into the source of the image - apparently during the 14th century plagues, some doctors treating plague victims would wear protective clothing, including bird-like masks. Not well-explained in the caption, and the image may actually be more appropriate to the Black Death article than this one. User:Kevyn 00:31, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC) **Re: Doctor Beak: The bird-like masks were stuffed with spices and plant fibers -- both to deal with odors and to "strain the miasma" which was thought to carry the plague. Sometimes it did work. Its modern analog - guaze masks - actually do help strain bacillus particles and reduce infection. I do agree that moving the picture to the "Black Death" would be more topical. 2/05 -W (currently an anonymous) as of 02/17-05 User:WBardwin 06:08, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) ==Bubonic plague vs. Black Death== why are there two mostly similar articles? Black Death contains more or less the same info. -- User:Kku 16:25, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC) :I wondered the same thing myself, and considered merging them. However, after examining both articles, I believe that they should remain separate. :Bubonic plague is a general article about a disease. Black Death, however, is an article about an event, a very specific outbreak which occurred in the mid-1300's. By some estimates, the Black Death wiped out one-third of the European population, changing the entire course of European history. I believe this specific event was monumental enough to merit a separate article. :There are also some arguments made that The Black Death was not caused by bubonic plague at all, though these are not commonly accepted. I make no judgements about this, but the existence of the debate suggests to me a need for separate articles. :A very strong argument ''could'' be made for merging the two articles, and I could be swayed, though it might end up being a very long article. And granted, the two terms are often interchangeable in the public's mind. As such, I have added a disambiguating disclaimer to the tops of both articles, to help readers determine which article they want. :User:Kevyn 05:46, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC) ==Plague in NYC, ex New Mexico 2002== From New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Alert: Two cases of travel-associated bubonic plague in New York City http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400%3A1001%3A427978%3A%3ANO%3A%3AF2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE%2CF2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID%3A1000%2C19748 "Human plague has been reported most often from the four western states of Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico. Wild rodents, especially ground squirrels and prairie dogs, are the natural reservoir for the plague bacterium. Since January 1980, there have been 272 cases of plague reported in the United States; the overwhelming majority of cases were bubonic plague. Of these, 143 (53%) were acquired in New Mexico. Plague is not enzootic in the eastern United States; there has not been a case of plague in New York City in at least 100 years." User:Petersam 17:31, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Historical Cases == "The Plague of Justinian is the first known pandemic on record, and it also marks the first recorded case of bubonic plague in 541. At its peak, the plague was killing 10,000 people in Constantinople every day and perhaps 40 percent of the city's inhabitants. It went on to destroy up to a quarter of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean." In response to this claim of the initial appearance of a pandemic in historical records as the Plague of Justinian, I am pressed to challenge the authority of such a claim in favor of a contradictory, albeit less detailed, piece of information, providing that in the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C.E.), Athens was decimated by plague, claiming a possible one third of the populace, including Pericles (Western Civilization: A Brief History Vol. 1: to 1715 Speilvogal, Jackson J. West/Wadsworth 1999 Ch. 3, pp. 56, paragraph 2; ISBN 0-534-56062-8). This, in spite the loss, had no consequent effect on the progress and outcome of the war and may have thus been a reason why no full account has ever been accredited to any inherent significance therein. This would nonetheless appear to have preceded the plague of Constantinople by nearly a millennium. The omission of this antecedent is curious to me, and if my attempt at correction is misplaced, I would very much like to know how so, as well as your reasons for the omission, both for the sake of my own appreciation of what constitutes academic, indisputable history, and what might qualify a plague as monumental (e.g., were the numbers of the Athenians in the 5th century who’d fallen to the plague simply not high enough for such consideration? Was the account of too questionable an authorship to be deemed as supportable historical fact?) ---- 02-14-05 There are several other literary or historical incidents/accounts of plague epidemics in localized areas. These are of interest both historically and as studies of disease outbreak and contagion. I've placed the Athenian incident (above - unknown contributor) in ''Localized Epidemics'''- and added a few others to the category. I've also expanded the Pandemics section with a summary of info on the great pandemics of Justinian, the Black Death and Asia. I also changed the title of that section to Historical Pandemics. I'v drawn most of this material from the three references I added to the article, although there is always differences of opinion on some large items and details. Unfortunately, I don't have a source for smaller Asian epidemics, and my info on the Third Pandemic is more limited. Will try and find a few more books. - W. (an anon). ---- "In the second century C.E., during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan, Rufus of Ephesus records an outbreak of plague in Lybia, Egypt and Syria. He clearly stated that buboes were present and described other symptoms associated with the bubonic plague. This local epidemic preceded the plague pandemic of Constantinople by approximately 350 years." * moved this paragraph from the article. My current references disagree on the date - will try to find some confirmation one way or another. -W 02-16-05. :Five out of six references place the Ephesian report in the 2nd century BCE, not in Trajan's time. Copy edited and replaced the paragraph in article. Please comment if you have more information. User:WBardwin 08:18, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Tracked down an older, but more definative, reference on this quotation. The confusion comes from the fact that Rufus describes an epidemic in his time -- 1st century AD, but makes reference to a much older account of the same disease - with the same symptoms - in the same geographic area - in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE. This author Simpson, preferred the older date for Rufus' reference. Corrections and information placed in the article. User:WBardwin 10:25, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC) == A Tree of Plague Articles == Do we need to subdivide this article -- perhaps into one dealing with the disease and medical information on outbreak and contagion - and one dealing with the historic impact/incidences of plague? The last could tie more closely with the Black Death article and perhaps we should create articles on the other two known pandemics? -W (currently anon.) as of 02/17/05 User:WBardwin I found that the Plague of Justinian article already existed, so went ahead and created a Third Pandemic article as well. Little new information in them as yet, but will work at it. I still think breaking history from the disease itself would be good. User:WBardwin 07:13, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) ---- does anyone know any good informational websites on this subject???????????????? == i need help == does any know any good info websites other than wikipedia?????????????? Both this article and Black Death have link sections at the bottom. A quick search will pull up a number of sites, often history oriented. In addition: : [http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html ] -- This one is only average, but contains links to accounts from the time period. :[http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm] -- primary source in translation. This one's a little better. :[http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic428.htm] eMedicine site - Good medical info. Hope you put these to constructive use. Welcome to Wikipedia. User:WBardwin 21:54, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
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#REDIRECT Bubonic plague
Bubonic plague
Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague which is characterized by swollen, tender inflamed Lymph nodes (called buboes); other forms are Septicemic plague which occurs when plague bacterium multiply in the blood and Pneumonic plague which occurs when the lungs are infected. == Infection/transportation == It is primarily a disease of rodents, particularly marmots (in which the most virulent strains of plague are primarily found), but also black rats, prairie dogs, chipmunks, squirrels and other similar large rodents. Human infection most often occurs when a person is bite (medicine) by a flea that has previously fed on an infected rodent. In 1896, bacteriologist Alexandre Emile John Yersin isolated the responsible bacterium and determined the common mode of transmission. The disease is caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis'' and is usually transmitted by the bite of fleas from an infected host, often a black rat. The bacteria are transferred from the blood of infected rats to the rat flea (''Xenopsylla cheopsis''). The bacillus multiplies in the stomach of the flea, blocking it. When the flea next bites a mammal, the consumed blood is regurgitated along with the bacillus into the bloodstream of the bitten animal. Any serious outbreak of plague is started by other disease outbreaks in the rodent population. During these outbreaks, infected fleas that have lost their normal hosts seek other sources of blood. == Symptoms and treatment == The disease becomes evident 2–7 days after infection. Initial symptoms are chills, fever, headaches, and the formation of buboes. The buboes are formed by the infection of the lymph nodes, which swell and become prominent. If unchecked, the bacteria infects the bloodstream (septicemic plague), which can progress to the lungs (pneumonic plague). In septicemia plague there is bleeding into the skin and other organs, which creates black patches on the skin, hence the name Black Death. Untreated septicemic plague is universally fatal, but early treatment with antibiotics is effective (usually streptomycin or gentamicin), reducing the mortality rate to around 15% (USA 1980s). People who die from this form of plague often die on the same day that symptoms first appear. With pneumonia plague infecting lungs came the possibility of person-to-person transmission through respiratory droplets. The incubation period for pneumonic plague is usually between two to four days, but can be as little as a few hours. The initial symptoms of headache, weakness, and coughing with hemoptysis are indistinguishable from other respiratory illnesses. Without diagnosis and treatment the infection can be fatal in one to six days; mortality in untreated cases may be as high as 95%. The disease can be effectively treated with antibiotics. == Historical epidemics == The first Western literary account of a possible outbreak of plague is found in the book of Samuel V of the Hebrew Bible. In this account, the Philistines of Ashdod were struck with a plague for the crime of stealing the Ark of the Covenant from the Children of Israel. These events have been dated to approximately the second half of the eleventh century B.C. The word "hemorrhoids" is used in English language translations to describe the sores which came upon the Philistines. The Hebrew language, however, can be interpreted as "swelling in the secret parts". The account indicates that the Philistine city and its political territory was struck with both a "ravaging of mice" and a plague, bringing death to a large segment of the population. In the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C.), Thucydides described the coming of an epidemic disease which began in Ethiopia, passed through Egypt and Libya, and then came to the Greek world. Athens was decimated by Plague_of_Athens, losing a possible third of the populace, including Pericles (Speilvogal, J, 1999, pp. 56). This, in spite of the loss in population, had no consequent effect on the progress and outcome of the war. This epidemic has long been considered an outbreak of bubonic plague. However, from Thucydides' description, some modern scholars dispute the assignment of plague, feeling that smallpox or measles may be better candidates. In the first century AD, Rufus of Ephesus, a Greek anatomist, refers to an outbreak of plague in Libya, Egypt, and Syria. He records that Alexandrian doctors named Dioscorides and Posidonius described symptoms which included acute fever, pain, agitation and delirium. Buboes, large, hard and non-suppurating, developed behind the knees, around the elbows and "in the usual places." The death toll of those infected was very high. Rufus also wrote that similar buboes were reported by a Dionysius Curtus, who may have practiced medicine in Alexandria in the third century B.C. If this is correct, the eastern Mediterranean world may have been familiar with bubonic plague at that early date. (ref. Simpson, W.J., Patrick, A.) The last significant European outbreak occurred in Russia in A.D. 1877–1889 in rural areas near the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea. This outbreak is sometimes seen as an extension of the Third Pandemic (see below). Efforts in hygiene and patient isolation reduced the spread of the disease, with approximately 420 deaths in the region. Significantly, the region of Vetlianka in this area is near a population of the "bobak", a type of small marmot considered a very dangerous plague reservoir. == Historical pandemics == ===Plague of Justinian=== :''For more complete information, see Plague of Justinian.'' :''See also Climate changes of 535-536''. The Plague of Justinian is the first known pandemic on record, and it also marks the first firmly recorded pattern of bubonic plague in A.D. 541–542. This outbreak may have originated in Ethiopia or Egypt. The huge city of Constantinople imported massive amounts of grain to feed its citizens, mostly from Egypt. The grain ships may have been the original source of contagion for the city, with massive public granaries nurturing the rat and flea population. At its peak, the plague was killing 5,000 people in Constantinople every day and ultimately killed perhaps 40 percent of the city's inhabitants. It went on to destroy up to a quarter of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean. A second major plague wave in A.D. 588 spread through the Mediterranean into what is now France. A maximum figure of 25 million dead is considered a fairly reasonable estimate. ===Black Death=== :''For more complete information, see Black Death.'' [[image:Doktorschnabel 430px.jpg|thumb|250px|"Doktor Schnabel von Rom" (English: "Doctor Beak from Rome") engraving by Paul Fürst (after J Columbina). The beak is a primitive gas mask, stuffed with substances thought to ward off the plague.]] During the mid-1300s, the Black Death, a massive and deadly epidemic swept through Eurasia, killing one-third of the population by some estimates, and subsequently changing the course of both Asian and European history. The 200 million people who died was the largest death toll from any known epidemic of any disease. Many scientists and historians believe that this outbreak was an incidence of bubonic plague. A strong presence of the more contagious pneumonic and septicemic varieties increased the pace of infection and led to the spread of the disease deep into the inland areas of the continents. Plague continued to strike parts of Europe throughout the 1400s, 1500s and 1600s with varying degrees of intensity and fatality. Researchers still do not agree on why large outbreaks of the infection have never returned to Europe. However, changes in hygiene habits and strong efforts toward public health and sanitation probably had a significant impact on the survival of the disease. ===Third Pandemic=== :''For more complete information see Third Pandemic.'' The Third Pandemic began in China in 1855, spreading the bubonic plague to all inhabited continents, and ultimately killing more than 12 million people in India and China alone. Casualty patterns indicate that waves of this pandemic may have been from two different sources. The first was primarily bubonic and was carried around the world through ocean going trade, through transporting infected persons, rats and cargos harboring fleas. The second, more virulent strain, was primarily pneumonic in character with a strong person to person contagion. This strain was largely confined to Manchuria and Mongolia. Researchers during the "Third Pandemic" identified plague vectors and the plague bacillus, leading in time to modern treatment methods. == Plague as a biological weapon == Plague has a long history as a biological weapon. Historical accounts from medieval Europe detail the use of infected animal carcasses, by Mongols, Turks and other groups, to infect enemy water supplies. Plague victims were also reported to have been tossed by catapult into cities under siege. During World War II, the Japanese Army developed weaponized plague based on the breeding and release of large numbers of fleas. During the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, civilians and prisoners of war were deliberately infected with the plague bacillus. These subjects, called "logs", were then studied by dissection, some while still living and conscious. After World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed means of weaponizing pneumonic plague. Experiments included various delivery methods, vacuum drying, sizing the bacillus, developing strains resistant to antibiotics, combining the bacillus with other diseases, such as diptheria, and genetic engineering. Scientists who worked in USSR bio-weapons programs have stated that the Soviet effort was formidable and that large stocks of weaponized plague bacillus were produced. Information on many of the Soviet projects is largely unavailable. Aerosolized pneumonic plague remains the most significant threat.[http://www.vnh.org/BIOCASU/9.html][http://www.biohazardnews.net/agent_plague.shtml] == Contemporary cases == The disease still exists in wild animal populations from the Caucasus Mountains east across southern and central Russia, to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and parts of China; in Southwest Asia and Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and East Africa (including the island of Madagascar); and in North America from the Pacific ocean eastward to the western Great Plains, and from British Columbia south to Mexico; and in South America in two areas—the Andes mountains and Brazil. There is no plague-infected animal population in Europe or Australia. Globally, the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 human cases of plague every year. == References == * de Carvalho, Raimundo Wilson; Serra-Freire, Nicolau Maués; Linardi, Pedro Marcos; de Almeida, Adilson Benedito; and da Costa, Jeronimo Nunes (2001). [http://memorias.ioc.fiocruz.br/965/4152.html Small Rodents Fleas from the Bubonic Plague Focus Located in the Serra dos Órgãos Mountain Range, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]. ''Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz'' 96(5), 603–609. PMID 11500756. ''this manuscript reports a census of potential plague vectors (rodents and fleas) in a Brazilian focus region (i.e. region associated with cases of disease); free PDF download'' Retrieved 2005-03-02 * Gregg, Charles T. ''Plague!: The shocking story of a dread disease in America today''. New York, NY: Scribner, 1978, ISBN 0684153726. * Kelly, John. ''The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2005. ISBN 0060006927. * McNeill, William H. ''Plagues and People''. New York: Anchor Books, 1976. ISBN 0385121229. * Orent, Wendy. ''Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease''. New York: Free Press, 2004. ISBN 0743236858. * Patrick, Adam. "Disease in Antiquity: Ancient Greece and Rome," in ''Diseases in Antiquity'', editors: Don Brothwell and A. T. Sandison. Springfield, Illinois; Charles C. Thomas, 1967. * Simpson, W. J. ''A Treatise on Plague''. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1905. * Speilvogal, Jackson J. ''Western Civilization: A Brief History Vol. 1: to 1715''. Belmont, Calif.: West/Wadsworth, 1999, Ch. 3, p. 56, paragraph 2. ISBN 0534560628. == In literature == * ''The Decameron'' by Giovanni Boccaccio (1350). Takes place in Florence in 1348, during the outbreak of the "Black Death", widely believed to be Bubonic Plague. * ''The Plague'' by Albert Camus (1947). An existentialism novel centered around an outbreak of the plague. * ''A Journal of the Plague Year'' by Daniel Defoe (1722). A fictional first hand account of the London outbreak of 1665. * ''Doomsday Book'' by Connie Willis (1992). A Hugo award and Nebula award-winning historical science fiction novel, in which a time-traveler inadvertently ends up in the plague-ridden England of 1348. ==See also== *Black Death *Epidemics *Medieval demography *Plague *Plague of Justinian *Third Pandemic ==External links== *World Health Organization **[http://www.who.int/topics/plague/en/ Health topic] **[http://www.who.int/csr/disease/plague/en/ Communicable Disease Surveillance & Response] - Impact of plague & Information resources *Centers for Disease Control and Prevention **[http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/index.htm CDC Plague] map world distribution, publications, information on bioterrorism preparedness and response regarding plague **[http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/submenus/sub_plague.htm Infectious Disease Information] more links including travelers' health *[http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic428.htm Symptoms, causes, pictures of bubonic plague] Diseases Epidemics Pandemics simple:Bubonic plague vi:Dịch hạch
Bubonic plague
Hmm. I don't think plague should redirect here. There have been plagues of other things—and not just infectious diseases. What about the Biblical plagues of Egypt, for instance? (See Seder#The Third Telling). —User:Mulad 17:18, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC) *Interesting point, but in the minds of most English-speakers, the word "plague" would bring to mind the biblical plagues and the bubonic plague. The latter, however, is ''the'' plague. Perhaps a link at the top would be appropriate -- I would add it, but I don't know what the name of the article is where biblical plagues are discussed. User:Jonathan Grynspan (On a sidenote, can anyone explain the relationship of Doctor Beak is to the article? I don't get it, silly me.) **Re: Doctor Beak: I wondered that myself, so I looked into the source of the image - apparently during the 14th century plagues, some doctors treating plague victims would wear protective clothing, including bird-like masks. Not well-explained in the caption, and the image may actually be more appropriate to the Black Death article than this one. User:Kevyn 00:31, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC) **Re: Doctor Beak: The bird-like masks were stuffed with spices and plant fibers -- both to deal with odors and to "strain the miasma" which was thought to carry the plague. Sometimes it did work. Its modern analog - guaze masks - actually do help strain bacillus particles and reduce infection. I do agree that moving the picture to the "Black Death" would be more topical. 2/05 -W (currently an anonymous) as of 02/17-05 User:WBardwin 06:08, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) ==Bubonic plague vs. Black Death== why are there two mostly similar articles? Black Death contains more or less the same info. -- User:Kku 16:25, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC) :I wondered the same thing myself, and considered merging them. However, after examining both articles, I believe that they should remain separate. :Bubonic plague is a general article about a disease. Black Death, however, is an article about an event, a very specific outbreak which occurred in the mid-1300's. By some estimates, the Black Death wiped out one-third of the European population, changing the entire course of European history. I believe this specific event was monumental enough to merit a separate article. :There are also some arguments made that The Black Death was not caused by bubonic plague at all, though these are not commonly accepted. I make no judgements about this, but the existence of the debate suggests to me a need for separate articles. :A very strong argument ''could'' be made for merging the two articles, and I could be swayed, though it might end up being a very long article. And granted, the two terms are often interchangeable in the public's mind. As such, I have added a disambiguating disclaimer to the tops of both articles, to help readers determine which article they want. :User:Kevyn 05:46, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC) ==Plague in NYC, ex New Mexico 2002== From New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Alert: Two cases of travel-associated bubonic plague in New York City http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400%3A1001%3A427978%3A%3ANO%3A%3AF2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE%2CF2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID%3A1000%2C19748 "Human plague has been reported most often from the four western states of Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico. Wild rodents, especially ground squirrels and prairie dogs, are the natural reservoir for the plague bacterium. Since January 1980, there have been 272 cases of plague reported in the United States; the overwhelming majority of cases were bubonic plague. Of these, 143 (53%) were acquired in New Mexico. Plague is not enzootic in the eastern United States; there has not been a case of plague in New York City in at least 100 years." User:Petersam 17:31, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Historical Cases == "The Plague of Justinian is the first known pandemic on record, and it also marks the first recorded case of bubonic plague in 541. At its peak, the plague was killing 10,000 people in Constantinople every day and perhaps 40 percent of the city's inhabitants. It went on to destroy up to a quarter of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean." In response to this claim of the initial appearance of a pandemic in historical records as the Plague of Justinian, I am pressed to challenge the authority of such a claim in favor of a contradictory, albeit less detailed, piece of information, providing that in the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C.E.), Athens was decimated by plague, claiming a possible one third of the populace, including Pericles (Western Civilization: A Brief History Vol. 1: to 1715 Speilvogal, Jackson J. West/Wadsworth 1999 Ch. 3, pp. 56, paragraph 2; ISBN 0-534-56062-8). This, in spite the loss, had no consequent effect on the progress and outcome of the war and may have thus been a reason why no full account has ever been accredited to any inherent significance therein. This would nonetheless appear to have preceded the plague of Constantinople by nearly a millennium. The omission of this antecedent is curious to me, and if my attempt at correction is misplaced, I would very much like to know how so, as well as your reasons for the omission, both for the sake of my own appreciation of what constitutes academic, indisputable history, and what might qualify a plague as monumental (e.g., were the numbers of the Athenians in the 5th century who’d fallen to the plague simply not high enough for such consideration? Was the account of too questionable an authorship to be deemed as supportable historical fact?) ---- 02-14-05 There are several other literary or historical incidents/accounts of plague epidemics in localized areas. These are of interest both historically and as studies of disease outbreak and contagion. I've placed the Athenian incident (above - unknown contributor) in ''Localized Epidemics'''- and added a few others to the category. I've also expanded the Pandemics section with a summary of info on the great pandemics of Justinian, the Black Death and Asia. I also changed the title of that section to Historical Pandemics. I'v drawn most of this material from the three references I added to the article, although there is always differences of opinion on some large items and details. Unfortunately, I don't have a source for smaller Asian epidemics, and my info on the Third Pandemic is more limited. Will try and find a few more books. - W. (an anon). ---- "In the second century C.E., during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan, Rufus of Ephesus records an outbreak of plague in Lybia, Egypt and Syria. He clearly stated that buboes were present and described other symptoms associated with the bubonic plague. This local epidemic preceded the plague pandemic of Constantinople by approximately 350 years." * moved this paragraph from the article. My current references disagree on the date - will try to find some confirmation one way or another. -W 02-16-05. :Five out of six references place the Ephesian report in the 2nd century BCE, not in Trajan's time. Copy edited and replaced the paragraph in article. Please comment if you have more information. User:WBardwin 08:18, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) :Tracked down an older, but more definative, reference on this quotation. The confusion comes from the fact that Rufus describes an epidemic in his time -- 1st century AD, but makes reference to a much older account of the same disease - with the same symptoms - in the same geographic area - in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE. This author Simpson, preferred the older date for Rufus' reference. Corrections and information placed in the article. User:WBardwin 10:25, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC) == A Tree of Plague Articles == Do we need to subdivide this article -- perhaps into one dealing with the disease and medical information on outbreak and contagion - and one dealing with the historic impact/incidences of plague? The last could tie more closely with the Black Death article and perhaps we should create articles on the other two known pandemics? -W (currently anon.) as of 02/17/05 User:WBardwin I found that the Plague of Justinian article already existed, so went ahead and created a Third Pandemic article as well. Little new information in them as yet, but will work at it. I still think breaking history from the disease itself would be good. User:WBardwin 07:13, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) ---- does anyone know any good informational websites on this subject???????????????? == i need help == does any know any good info websites other than wikipedia?????????????? Both this article and Black Death have link sections at the bottom. A quick search will pull up a number of sites, often history oriented. In addition: : [http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html ] -- This one is only average, but contains links to accounts from the time period. :[http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm] -- primary source in translation. This one's a little better. :[http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic428.htm] eMedicine site - Good medical info. Hope you put these to constructive use. Welcome to Wikipedia. User:WBardwin 21:54, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
B
BA | BC | BD | BE | BF | BG | BH | BI | BJ | BK | BL | BM | BN | BO | BP | BR | BS | BT | BU | BW | BX | BY | BZ |Words begining with Bubonic_plague:
Bubonic_Plague
Bubonic_plague
Bubonic_plague
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