Bubonic+Plague

= __**Bubonic plague (Black Death)**__ =


 * __By Andy Li__**

Bubonic plague is a plague disease caused by the rod-shaped bacteria //Yersinia pestis//. It is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it is an infectious disease that can be transmitted by all animals, most commonly rats and fleas. There are two other forms of //Yersinia// plague, septicemic and pneumonic plague. Luckily, bubonic plague is the least deadly of the three. Bubonic plague has often been associated with the Black Death, a plague pandemic that killed a third of Europe's population at the time(cc. 1340-1350). Other outbreaks of plague in the past have occured in places such as China and Brazil, but the plague seems to have mainly hit Europe the hardest.
 * __Introduction[[image:http://nursewriter.com/uploaded_images/y-pestis-774119.bmp width="178" height="176" align="left" caption="Yersinia pestis"]]__**

The most famous symptom of bubonic plague is a painful, swollen lymph gland (they act as traps and filter for alien particles,and are part of the immune system), also known as a "bubo"(Greek //βυβο//).
 * __Symptoms__**

Other symptoms include:
 * Muscle cramps
 * High fever (>39 Cº)
 * Seizures (epilepsy)
 * Skin colour slight change
 * Bleeding out of the ear(cochlea) will occur around 12 hours after infection

The cure for bubonic plague is early treatment. Since the plague vaccine is not commercially available in some countries, early treatment is usually recommended when someone has been infected. The treatment is antibiotics, and the death rate after being treated is only about 1-15%. However, if left untreated, the body will still fight against the plague, and "cure" bubonic plague in 10-50% of the cases. Sometimes, bubonic plague will further develop into septicemic and pneumonic plague, which are by far deadlier and harder to treat.
 * __Cure/Treatment__**



In order to prevent bubonic plague, there are three important things:
 * __Prevention__**
 * Public health education,
 * Environmental management (sterilisation), and
 * Preventive drug therapy (vaccines).