But, fortunately, we're in the clear. Unlike COVID-19, we have clear treatments for the bubonic plague. Additionally, the disease is rare with a few cases every year found in the United States. This means there's pretty much no chance we'd ever see a pandemic play out like the one in the 14th century.
Since that time, plague has occurred as scattered cases in rural areas. Most human cases in the United States occur in two regions: Northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado. California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada.
On 4 April 2022, the Provincial Health Division (DPS) of the province of Ituri declared a resurgence of the Bubonic Plague epidemic in the health zone of Rethy, in the territory of Djugu.
Today, modern antibiotics are effective in treating plague. Without prompt treatment, the disease can cause serious illness or death. Presently, human plague infections continue to occur in rural areas in the western United States, but significantly more cases occur in parts of Africa and Asia.
Antibiotic treatment is effective against plague bacteria, so early diagnosis and early treatment can save lives. Currently, the three most endemic countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
The last cases of human plague in Australia occurred in the 1920s. However, plague may occur in overseas travellers as it still occurs in many countries in Africa, the former Soviet Union, the Americas and Asia. There are three main types of plague, these are: bubonic.
The bottom line
But health experts say there's no chance a plague epidemic will strike again, as the plague is easily prevented and cured with antibiotics.
Plague can be successfully treated with antibiotics. Once a patient is diagnosed with suspected plague they should be hospitalized and, in the case of pneumonic plague, medically isolated.
Today we still use the word “plague” to mean illness caused by Yersinia pestis. Usually, we also call it by the specific type of plague it is — bubonic, septicemic or pneumonic.
Worldwide, plague is most common in rural and semirural parts of Africa (especially the African island of Madagascar), South America and Asia.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), through April 17 this year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported 56 cases of bubonic plague, including two deaths.
In the study, Barreiro and his colleagues found that Black Death survivors in London and Denmark had an edge in their genes – mutations that helped protect against the plague pathogen, Yersinia pestis. Survivors passed those mutations onto their descendants, and many Europeans still carry those mutations today.
The last major outbreak in the United States occurred in Los Angeles in 1924, though the disease is still present in wild rodents and can be passed to humans that come in contact with them.
What caused the Black Death? The Black Death is believed to have been the result of plague, an infectious fever caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The disease was likely transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas.
How did it end? The most popular theory of how the plague ended is through the implementation of quarantines. The uninfected would typically remain in their homes and only leave when it was necessary, while those who could afford to do so would leave the more densely populated areas and live in greater isolation.
So yes, we can say that there are TEN plagues as we have them today. However, this final list is likely the product of multiple sources that were redacted together to create a story filled with meaning and symbolism for the Jewish people. Remember, history is different for us today than it was for those in antiquity.
The plague vaccine licensed for use in the United States is prepared from Y. pestis organisms grown in artificial media, inactivated with formaldehyde, and preserved in 0.5% phenol. The vaccine contains trace amounts of beef-heart extract, yeast extract, agar, and peptones and peptides of soya and casein.
Because most people who got the plague died, and many often had blackened tissue due to gangrene, bubonic plague was called the Black Death. A cure for bubonic plague wasn't available.
The first application of antiserum to the treatment of patients is credited to Yersin [5], who used serum developed with the assistance of his Parisian colleagues Calmette, Roux, and Borrel.
Once people have the disease, the bacteria can spread to others who have close contact with them. Because of the delay between being exposed to the bacteria and becoming sick, people could travel over a large area before becoming contagious and possibly infecting others.
Bubonic plague continued to reappear annually in Sydney until 1910, with smaller numbers of cases also reported in north Queensland, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle. In total, 1371 cases were reported with 535 deaths across Australia.
Within just hours an individual could be in agony from a number of these symptoms, if not all of them. The Black Plague, in all forms, is a relatively fast death, but an astonishingly painful one.
It turns out that certain genetic variants made people far more likely to survive the plague. But this protection came with a price: People who inherit the plague-resistant mutations run a higher risk of immune disorders such as Crohn's disease.
Black Death—The Invention of Quarantine
The Black Death, which hit Europe in 1347, claimed an astonishing 25 million lives in just four years.