Plague, Medieval Scourge, on the Rise

Plague, Medieval Scourge, on the Rise
By Michael Kahn,
Reuters
Posted: 2008-01-15 11:48:22
Filed Under: Health News, World News
LONDON (Jan. 15) - Plague, the disease that devastated medieval Europe, is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers warned on Tuesday.

While it has only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the past 20 years, plague has appeared in new countries in recent decades and is now shifting into Africa, Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool and colleagues said.
Medieval Scourge
Makes Comeback
Plague, the disease that decimated medieval Europe's population, is experiencing a resurgence. Researchers say new countries, including some in Africa, have reported outbreaks in recent decades. This lithograph by F. Howard shows people praying for relief from "the Black Death" in the 14th century.
A bacterium known as Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death when it was spread by infected fleas, and the more dangerous pneumonic plague, spread from one person to another through coughing or sneezing.

"Although the number of human cases of plague is relatively low, it would be a mistake to overlook its threat to humanity, because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated," they wrote in the journal Public Library of Science journal PloS Medicine.

Rodents carry plague, which is virtually impossible to wipe out and moves through the animal world as a constant threat to humans, Begon said. Both forms can kill within days if not treated with antibiotics.

"You can't realistically get rid of all the rodents in the world," he said in a telephone interview. "Plague appears to be on the increase, and for the first time there have been major outbreaks in Africa."

Globally the World Health Organization reports about 1,000 to 3,000 plague cases each year, with most in the last five years occurring in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States sees about 10 to 20 cases each year.

More worrying are outbreaks seem on the rise after years of relative inactivity in the 20th century, Begon said. The most recent large pneumonic outbreak comprised hundreds of suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006.

Bubonic plague, called the Black Death because of black bumps that sometimes develop on victims' bodies, causes severe vomiting and high fever. Victims of pneumonic plague have similar symptoms but not the black bumps.

Begon and his colleagues called for more research into better ways to prevent plague from striking areas where people lack access to life-saving drugs and to defend against the disease if used as a weapon.

"We should not overlook the fact that plague has been weaponized throughout history, from catapulting corpses over city walls, to dropping infected fleas from airplanes, to refined modern aerosol formulation," the researchers wrote.
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2008-01-15 08:59:42

Globally the World Health Organization reports about 1,000 to 3,000 plague cases each year, with most in the last five years occurring in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States sees about 10 to 20 cases each year.

More worrying are outbreaks seem on the rise after years of relative inactivity in the 20th century, Begon said. The most recent large pneumonic outbreak comprised hundreds of suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006.

Matthew 24:7-8 - "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and [b]pestilences[/b], and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

I also just learned ....heard ( can anyone back this up) that plagues , or this one, are caused by droughts.

Well, we've seen many of these lately, here in the USA.

Katy

Ginnyrose... TOOOOO funny!!!

I know there is such an imbalance in nature WE have caused.

The disappearance of Honey Bees, and what that is doing is really scary.

In china, there is a place where all the Honey Bees have disappeared, and the local people have to hand pollinate the fruit trees.

I'm sure the pesticides are to blame, and possibly the cause of so many bacteria being able to survive longer and harder.

There are so many factors involved.

Speaking of rats...

Years ago, my daughter wanted a Python for a pet. Oh My, this was ALL she wanted for her birthday.

No! No! No! was my only reply.

Oh Mom, just come to the pet store and I'll show you how sweet they are....

(my daughter was and is a animal activist)

With appealing to her animal right conscience I said....oh do you know what Pythons eat...mice and then rats...

Her reply...that's OK I hate rats!

So if she is any indication of the rights of rats...maybe Cats are an excellent idea!

Katy

but then what will happen to the "kitties?? :-o

They will all be fat and happy and live happily ever after!!!

Katy

Mike, is that your cat in the picture......Yes Loved it!

ginnyrose,

I know there is a verse in Revelation about man destroying the earth, and have always wondered about that verse. Could it mean all these things we our of our own carelessness are doing...pollution, dumping waste in the lakes and rivers.

My Father worked for the Atomic Energy Commission, Hanford, in Washington State for many rears before they closed it down. It was built exactly like the one in Russia Chernobyl (SP) that had its mishap. While out there, he came down with Graves Disease. Yes, it was related.

A recent acquaintance, who is from Spokane WA told me about his mother and uncle both coming down with MS at the same time..hummmm and how many there have very strange illnesses.

Yes, I do think we are responsible for making a mes of things.

Loved your comment on cow gas :-P , but is it on the rise due to what they are being fed?

I've also wondered about girls becoming physically more mature in our day, and if all teh hormones being fed to chicken and such might have something to do with that, as well as women going into **earlier retirement** (menopause) then our Mothers.

I agree, man has been foolish, and even when warned, continues his foolishness with little regard to these warnings.

There are so many issues at hand, with little regard for our children and theirs to have to deal with. If it's too big for us, i'm sure it will be for them as well.

I heard plagues are brought on by droughts. I am still researching this area too. But it would be both a combination of stronger strains due to resistance built up, with what does seem to be strange weather patterns.

We have 45 days of water left (I live in Atlanta, GA). Have NO WATERING of anykind, and have for months. The water pressure here is turned down, so it takes me 10 minutes to fill a coffee pot, and it takes 5 times longer to run a modest bath.

There is no such thing as Mother Nature...well,she was a pagan goddess, so we know all these things are in God's hands, weather wise.

Many issues we are having to deal with, and I do believe it is the beginning of the signs of the times. People will laugh and say life goes in cycles, but at this rapid a pace????

Just my thoughts,
Katy

Loved your comment on cow gas , but is it on the rise due to what they are being fed

Actually I hope it is on the rise! Sorry ozone layer!!

Katy

More info, interesting!!!

It was 229 years after the Great Plague dealt London such a terrible blow that the probable cause of the disease was discovered. In 1894, during an epidemic in Hong Kong, two rival research teams – one led by the Japanese scientist Shibasaburo Kitasato and the other by the Frenchman Alexandre Yersin, a former pupil of Louis Pasteur – isolated the bacillus Pasteurella pestis (now called Yersinia pestis) that is responsible for plague.

Further research showed that this was a disease of black rats and other rodents, spread by their fleas. When all the rats died, the fleas would frantically look for new hosts: human beings. The plague bacillus is extremely virulent. Laboratory mice die after being infected with just three bacilli – and fleas can disgorge up to 24,000 in one bite.

The different types of the plague

There are three human types of the disease.

Bubonic plague is the most common. A flea bite deposits the bacilli into the body's lymphatic system. As a result, the disease is characterised by 'buboes', large, inflamed and painful swellings in the lymph glands of the groin, armpits or neck, depending on where the flea bite occurred. Historically, 60% of all those infected died of bubonic plague.

In septicaemic plague, which is almost invariably fatal, the bacilli enter the bloodstream directly, rather than the lymphatic system where they might be contained. Like bubonic plague, the septicaemic variety is caused directly by flea bites.

Pneumonic plague is the most deadly: it is usually fatal and it does not require flea bites to spread. When the bacilli reach the lungs, severe pneumonia occurs, and the bacilli are present in the water droplets spread by coughs and on clothing. Thus it is highly contagious, especially in crowded, poorly ventilated buildings.

Death occurs quickly with pneumonic plague – within three or four days – and even faster with the septicaemic type: 24 hours. In all three, internal bleeding causes large bruises to appear on the skin – hence the plague's name in the 14th century, the Black Death.

It is widely believed that the Great Plague's memory lives on in the nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-ring o' roses': the 'roses' refer to the red spots that appear over the buboes, and 'A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down!' recalls the violent coughing and swift death that accompanies pneumonic plague.

A cure for the plague

In 1932, with sulphonamide drugs, there was finally an effective treatment for the plague. Yet, within 50 years, there were reports – persistent, though unconfirmed – that a strain of plague bacillus resistant to all medicinal and control measures had been developed for bacteriological warfare by the US army.

Plague is still endemic in parts of Asia and, surprisingly, in the western United States, where it is spread by squirrels, prairie dogs, chipmunks and other rodents and infected family pets. In 1992 (the latest figures), the World Health Organisation reported 108 deaths from 1,768 cases of bubonic plague worldwide. There is a vaccine, but because it takes several weeks to become effective, it is of little use in an epidemic.

A new theory?

In a new book – Biology of Plagues (Cambridge University Press, 2001, £65) – Susan Scott and Christopher J Duncan have challenged the belief that bubonic plague is caused by a bacillus carried by fleas travelling on black rats.

Scott researched the parish records of the small town of Penrith in Cumbria and discovered that, not only did plague reach this far outpost of England in the Middle Ages, but it had a definite spread from person to person within households. In addition, black rats would have not been present – they tend to congregate in areas of high human habitation, especially seaports, and in more temperate climes – and the only other likely animal carrier, the brown rat, did not arrive in Penrith until about 1720.

From this information, the two authors have concluded that the bubonic plague that affected Penrith was an infectious disease – that is, one spread from person to person – not a rat/flea-borne one. When they looked for a modern equivalent, they plumped for the Ebola and Marburg viruses, two of the most infectious and lethal viruses known today.

STOP PRESS

In October 2001, the science journal Nature announced that the complete genetic structure of the bacilli responsible for the plague has been unravelled by scientists at the Sanger Centre in Cambridge (UK). This new knowledge will help in the search for treatments for the disease and to combat a possible weapon of bio-terrorism.