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Brandynn Lehmann

Mrs. Mounts

Modern Lit.

5 November, 2019

Informative Essay

Plague, or better known as black death, is the notorious bacterial infection that was

known for wiping out one third of Europe in the 13th century (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention). Plague has been here for a large part of history and was first found nearly

twenty-six hundred years ago in China (. Though plague has been dropped to a very low

mortality rate, it's still not gone people who get it have an 89% higher chance to live, which is

much greater than the 34 percent in the 1900s(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The

plague is a disease that impacts the lungs of a person’s body, there are three types of it, which

includes many symptoms that can be treated if diagnosed early.

There are three main types of plague and they all have their own symptoms and causes,

which will be mentioned in the following paragraph, bubonic is the most common, pneumonic

plague is the deadliest, and septice is the final one. Today plague is far less common than it was

in the medieval ages, according to (Mayoclinic Staff) an estimated 11 deaths in the US from the

period from 2000-2017. This is a big change from wiping out 33% of Europe a couple hundred

years ago. Rodents are typically the hosts of the plague’ “The organism that causes the plague,

Yersinia Pestis, lives in small rodents found most commonly in rural and semi rural areas.” “the

organism is transmitted to humans who are bitten by fleas that have fed on an infected rodent, or
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by humans handling infected animals.” (Mayoclinic Staff) People say that rats were the cause of

the 1400s pandemic in Europe.

Each type of the plague has their own symptoms and causes. Bubonic plague consists of

fever, headaches, chills, etc. “The bacteria multiply in the lymph node closest to where the

bacteria entered the human body” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Lymph nodes

are located all around the body, but plague is normally at the armpits or hips. Septicemic plague

has common symptoms of bubonic plague but also includes abdominal shock and bleeding under

the skin.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that, “ skin and other tissues may

turn black and die, especially on the fingers, toes, and nose” (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention). This is why it was named the “Black Death” people’s skin turned black while they

were in the process of dying. Pneumonic plague is exactly what it sounds like, it rapidly

produces pneumonia, while also having the same symptoms of the previous two types.

Mayoclinic also mentions that this is the only plague type that can spread from person to person.

The three plagues would gradually get stronger and stronger until they would change to a

different type of plague.It starts as bubonic, turns to septicemic, then ending in pneumonic

plague.

Though there are no definite cures there are multiple methods of preventing/ stopping

further spreading of the virus, The most common method used for stopping the spread or further

growth of the virus is to quarantine the victim. According to Allen Cheng the greek term

quarentina means 40, which is also how many days the patient is separated from the rest of the

world. Vaccines have been in the works since the pandemics had first occurred, but no

breakthroughs have yet been discovered. There have been a couple that may have been
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successful but the doctors and scientists may not be certain, since now it is a far too uncommon

disease to test subjects on. An older practice that plague doctors would use to try and treat the

plague is by blooding, blooding is when the doctor covers the infected body in leeches, the

leeches then suck out the infected blood allowing for more new and non contaminated blood to

come in.

Those are the brief overview on what plague is, the symptoms of each type, and how it

can be treated . Though plague was discovered centuries ago there is still a lot about it that is still

uncertain, but that is mainly due to the fact that the disease is really rare to come by, with only

taking out 11 US citizens since 2006. Have you ever heard of the three types of plague, or of

anyone who has come across the deadly virus?