(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Threats of a Modern-Day Plague


            Over 1,400 years ago, there was a great disease that caused mass destruction. It killed over half of the human population as it spread across the world. The disease died down, only killing on a smaller scale, until it returned at large almost 800 years later. This time around they called it the Black Death and it wiped out one-third of the population of Europe. This deadly disease, known as the plague, still persists in the world today. If another large epidemic occurs it could move from the world's second deadliest disease to first, which is entirely possible given current circumstances. The plague continues to pose a serious threat to the world population due to heavy reliance on antibiotic treatment, lack of research for a vaccine, and the possibility of weaponization.
             The biological agent responsible for the plague is Yersinia pestis (Author Unknown. 2011). Yersinia pestis uses rodent fleas as a vector (Author Unknown. 2011). Y. pestis is able to thrive in rodent reservoirs across the world because of its hosts' widespread habitat (Wagner et al. 2014). When a vector rodent flea bites a human, the bacteria is transmitted, infecting the human (Author Unknown. 2011). At this point the infection can spread in three ways. It can spread to the lymph nodes and become the bubonic plague, it can spread into the blood stream and become the septicemic plague, or it can spread to the lungs causing the pneumonic plague (Author Unknown. 2011). Of the three, the pneumonic plague is the deadliest and easily transmitted within the human population. The pneumonic plague causes a cough in an infected person, and upon coughing they release fine water droplets containing the plague bacteria, which can be inhaled by another person to spread the disease (Author Unknown. 2012). The cause of death is dependent on the type of plague and area of infection but most cases ultimately lead to the pneumonic plague and death from pneumonia (Author Unknown.


Essays Related to Threats of a Modern-Day Plague


Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question