“Plague - MSF UK” plus 2 more

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• Plague - MSF UK
• Pneumonic Plague Is Diagnosed in China - The New York Times
• Outbreaks Spread Four Times Faster From Black Death To Great Plague - International Business Times

Plague - MSF UK Posted: 20 Oct 2017 12:00 AM PDT The Yersina pestis bacteria can be found in about 200 species of mammals. Mammals with the bacteria live on every continent except for Oceania. As the bacteria lives in an animal host it is virtually impossible to eradicate. Bubonic plague Bubonic plague is transmitted to humans through infected fleas, most commonly carried on rats. It infects your lymphatic system (the immune system), causing inflammation. Untreated, it can move into the blood and cause septicemic plague, or to the lungs, causing pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague Pneumonic plague is highly contagious and can be transmitted from person to person. It is contracted when the bacteria are inhaled (primary infection) or develops when bubonic or septicemic plague spreads to the lungs (secondary infection). Both cause pneumonia. Overcrowding and cool temperatures make pneumonic plague more likely to spread. Left untreated it is frequently fatal. Septicemic plague Septicemic plague occurs when bacteria enter and multiply in the bloodstream directly. Left untreated, both bubonic and pneumonic plague can lead to septicemic plague.

Pneumonic Plague Is Diagnosed in China - The New York Times Posted: 13 Nov 2019 12:00 AM PST BEIJING — Two people in China were diagnosed with plague, setting off a panic on Tuesday about the potential spread of the highly infectious and fatal disease and prompting China's government to warn citizens to take precautions to protect themselves. Beijing officials said the two infected people came from Inner Mongolia, a sparsely populated region of northern China. They sought treatment on Tuesday in a hospital in Beijing's Chaoyang District, where they were diagnosed with pneumonic plague, according to the government office of the district. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Weibo, the microblogging site, that there was no need for Beijing residents to panic and that the risks of further transmission are "extremely low." The authorities quickly isolated the patients, conducted epidemiological investigations on the people who could have been exposed and disinfected all the relevant sites, the CDC said. They have also strengthened monitoring of patients with fever, it added. Pneumonic plague is one of three types of infectious disease known as plague caused by the same bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Patients diagnosed with pneumonic plague, which causes high fevers and shortness of breath, sometimes first contract the closely related and more well-known disease, bubonic plague. Fears are mounting in China over a possible outbreak of the disease, once known as the Black Death, which killed tens of millions of people in medieval Europe, and spread through Asia and Africa. Last month, the authorities in China said they would strengthen quarantine measures to prevent plague from entering the country after Madagascar was struck by a fast-spreading outbreak of the disease. It is unclear when the cases were first detected in China but residents are asking why the authorities took so long to diagnose and disclose the problem. Li Jifeng, a doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital where the two people sought treatment, wrote on WeChat, a social media platform, that the patients sought treatment on Nov. 3. That post, which has since been deleted, was published by CN-Healthcare, a website that covers health care news in China. Dr. Li could not be reached for comment and Beijing Chaoyang Hospital declined to comment. Dr. Li wrote that the patient she saw was a middle-aged man, who had a fever and complained of breathing difficulties for 10 days. He sought treatment at a hospital in Inner Mongolia but his condition did not improve. His wife also developed a fever and respiratory problems. "After so many years of specialist training, I'm familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of most respiratory diseases," wrote Dr. Li. "But this time, I looked and looked at it. I couldn't guess what pathogen caused this pneumonia. I only knew it was rare." On why the authorities took so long to make the announcement, Dr. Li wrote that signs of any infectious disease need to be repeatedly verified and investigated, and such announcements cannot be "transmitted casually." The police quarantined the emergency room in the Chaoyang Hospital on Monday night, the news outlet Caixin reported, citing residents. On Tuesday, Chinese censors instructed online news aggregators in China to "block and control" online discussion related to news about the plague, according to a directive seen by The New York Times. Skeptical Chinese internet users have charged the government with being slow to disclose news about the disease, which is transmitted between humans and kills even faster than the more-common bubonic form. China has a history of covering up and being slow to announce infectious outbreaks, prompting many people to call for transparency this time. "The plague is not the most terrifying part," one user wrote on Weibo. "What's even scarier is the information not being made public." If left untreated, pneumonic plague is always fatal, according to the World Health Organization. But recovery rates are high if detected and treated with antibiotics, within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms, the agency said. Another user on Weibo called on the government to disclose how the patients arrived in Beijing from Inner Mongolia. If the patients traveled on their own using public transportation they could have spread the disease to many people. "How many people have they encountered potentially?" the user wrote. "Only 2 kilometers away from Chaoyang Hospital. I'm shaking and trembling." According to China's health commission, six people have died in the country from the plague since 2014. The most recent case was recorded earlier this year. Officials have warned people to avoid traveling to infected areas and contact with rodents. Elsie Chen and Zoe Mou contributed research.

Outbreaks Spread Four Times Faster From Black Death To Great Plague - International Business Times Posted: 19 Oct 2020 10:02 PM PDT KEY POINTS Plague outbreaks spread much faster in the 17th century than in the 14th century A team of researchers tried to find possible reasons behind the increased speed Scientists said the mode of transmission might have changed over time Just how fast did the plagues spread? A team of researchers found that plague outbreaks in London spread much faster in the 17th century than they did in the 14th century.  Both the Black Death and the Great Plague are infamous moments in history that took many lives. In a new study, a team of researchers analyzed historical records and found a pattern of plague transmission, which was much faster in the latter period compared to the former. The researchers found that the plague transmission in the 14th century doubled every 46 days. By comparison, the transmission doubled every 11 days in the 17th century, a news release from the McMaster University explains. This means that within a period of 300 years, the plague transmission in London became four times faster. Their findings were also consistent with the available death counts. "It is an astounding difference in how fast plague epidemics grew," study lead David Earn, of McMaster University, said in the news release. What's interesting is that the strain that caused these epidemics, the Yersinia pestis, did not change much during the time, the researchers said. And even today, how it was actually transmitted remains a mystery. The Yersinia pestis bacteria, strains of which are linked to historical plague pandemics. Photo: Creative Commons So how did the spread of the disease accelerate at such a pace? It's possible that the mode of transmission may have changed, with the earlier, slower epidemic having spread through infected fleas (bubonic plague) bites while the latter epidemic being spread from human to human (pneumonic plague), which is believed to be a much faster way of spreading. But this, too, is difficult to prove as both the epidemics are more consistent with the bubonic plague rather than pneumonic plague, the researchers note. The researchers also considered the population density and living conditions during those periods. Between the earlier and later epidemics, population size and density in London "increased enormously" and this would have affected the density of the rat and flea populations. "In addition, higher rat densities make it more likely that fleas departing dying rats end up on susceptible rat hosts," the researchers wrote. The climate also changed between the 14th and 17th centuries, with the 17th century being the coldest period of the Little Ice Age. This may have contributed to the changes in plague transmission. These are, however, mere possibilities and what really caused the substantial acceleration in the spread of the disease remains a mystery. "Why the later plague epidemics were faster than the earlier ones is not clear," the researchers wrote. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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