Wanted: Yersinia pestis
Austin Janssen
Yersinia pestis
Yersinia pestis is a bacteria that causes many diseases, but I'm going to talk about the Bubonic Plague. It gets into your bloodstream through infected flea bites. It attacks your lymph nodes after it gets into your blood.
Victims
The most common victims are ones with bad hygiene and/or ones that just let infected fleas live on them. There are about 1000-2000 reported cases every year world-wide. The flea is pictured above.
Symptoms
People with bubonic plague experience gangrene of the nose, lips, fingers, and toes. They also have fevers, cramps, chills, seizures, and swelling of the lymph node in the groin called the bubo, which it usually hides in for a while before moving to other parts of the body.
Black Death
The bubonic plague killed about 1/3 of Europe in 1348-1350. It also spread to Asia by way of the Silk Road, a popular trade route leading to China.
Treatment
Almost 50% of bubonic plague cases that are not treated within 24 hours of the first found symptom. It is mostly just treated with lots of antibiotics. IVs are usually necessary as well.