Joseph Lewis by

A Look at Yersinia pestis

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 00:34:23 UTC

This is an image of Yersinia pestis, which is a bacterium that causes a disease commonly called the plague. The bacterium itself is a Gram-negative coccobacillus and a facultative anaerobe.

Symptoms of Yersinia pestis

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 00:51:02 UTC

Symptoms associated with Yersinia pestis are often severe. There are two major clinical forms of the disease: bubonic plague and pneumonic plague. While the pneumonic plague is more fatal due to short incubation times, both forms of plague cause high fever, breathing constriction, opening of swollen buboes, seizures, extreme exhaustion, pain, and gangrene of toes, fingers, lips, or nose.

How Yersinia pestis is acquired

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 00:55:48 UTC

Yersinia pestis is transmitted from infected fleas. When these infected fleas bite a smaller mammal, that mammal also becomes infected. Humans are afflicted with the disease when they are bitten by an infected flea or when handling an infected small mammal. Even sick pets, such as cats, can be a source of transmission to humans.

The people with the most risk for Yersinia pestis

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 15:02:16 UTC

Most cases of Yersinia pestis in the United States occur in the western states, especially New Mexico and Arizona. Plague epidemics also occur in Africa, Asia, and South America. Most human cases since the 1990s have occurred in Africa. The people who are most at risk for acquiring the disease are the people who work outdoors or animal clinics where plague cases are most common.

Prevention of Yersinia pestis

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 15:06:14 UTC

There are many methods for preventing contact with Yersinia pestis. Such methods include:

Reduce the possibility of rodent habitats around your home, workplace, and recreational areas.
Wear gloves if you are handling or skinning a potentially infected animal.
Use repellent if you think there is a possibility of being exposed to fleas when camping, working, or hiking outdoors.
Keep fleas off of pets by applying flea control treatment.
Do not allow dogs or cats that roam free in endemic areas of the disease to sleep on your bed.

Treatment of Yersinia pestis

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 15:24:10 UTC

Because of how deadly Yersinia pestis can be, it is often recommended to begin treatment at the earliest possible sign of plague. Treatment for the disease includes many antibiotics: Gentamicin, Doxycyline, Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin, Moxifloxacin, and Chloramphenicol.

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 15:27:28 UTC

This is an illustration further noting how Yersinia pestis spreads.

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 15:29:48 UTC

This is a close-up image of a flea infected with Yersinia pestis.

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 15:33:05 UTC

This image provides an illustration of the gangrene and buboes that plague causes.

josephrlewis175 — 2024-12-08 15:48:06 UTC

This image shows an image of the bacterium Yersinia pestis together.