Summary: 

In this article, the author is teaching us that in some places around the world, the plague is coming back, and it might be a big deal. There are 3 types of the plague. The bubonic plague, the pneumonic plague, and the bacteria that causes the plague, the Yersinia bestis. The most common plague is the bubonic plague. Some of the places infected by the plague are California, New Mexico, and it is most common in Madagascar. 95% of the worlds human cases of the plague are in Madagascar. Also, 1 out of 8 animals were infected with the plague. Finally, between 1900 and 2015, there have been 1,036 human plague cases in the US. 

Vocabulary: 

- Plague: a contagious bacterial disease, typically with the formation of buboes (bubonic plague) and sometimes infection of the lungs (pneumonic plague) 

- Pandemic: a disease prevalent throughout the entire country, continent, or whole world 

- Death: the end of life for a person or organism; is the effect of most fatal disease 

- Buboes: black blisters that appear around infected area, when bitten by flea 

- Middle Ages: when the black death and plague occurred 

- Black Death: one of the most devastating pandemics: estimated 75-200 million people dead in Europe 

- Infected: affected by a virus/disease 

https://newsela.com/read/human-plague-US/id/25404/ 

 

 
 

     In some cases, leeches, maggots, or other folk remedies known to be gross, are coming back to be helpful. Maggots are a soft bodied legless larva, especially that of a fly found in decaying matter. Some people might think that antibiotics are the best way to take care of an injury or disease, yet that is not always true. Another treatment could be maggots and leeches.  More than 200 hospitals in the US and Europe prescribe maggots to treat leg injuries, ulcers, stab wounds, and more. This shows that these folk remedies are coming back because they are being used in different parts of the world.  About 5,000 maggots are delivered to hospitals throughout the US every week. That is many hospitals with the option to prescribe maggots to patients. Once in 1994 a woman's scalp got ripped off. The doctors preformed a micro-surgery. However, a part of the swelled up with congested blood cells. To resolve this problem, the woman applied leeches to the area for eight days. After the area received circulation again. This shows that even in horrible accidents you don’t always need the most high-tech medicine. 

 

Vocabulary 

Maggots- a soft-bodied legless larva, especially that of a fly found in decaying matter. 

Antibiotics- a medicine that inhabits the growth of or destroys microorganisms, or bacteria. 

Treatment-medical care given to a patient for an illness or injury. 

Leeches- an aquatic or terrestrial annelid worm with suckers at both ends. Many species are blood sucking parasites. 

Folk remedies- traditional medicine as practiced non-professionally especially practiced by people isolated from modern medicine. 

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4820 

Not washing your hands causes many gross things to happen. If you don’t wash your hands you could get or spread colds easier.  Around 80%  of infectious diseases are spread by touch. So if you don’t wash your hands you could spread bacteria to other people without even knowing it. Secondly, not washing your hands causes many gross things to happen is because if you don’t wash your hands you will contaminate your food with germs. If your hands are dirty and covered in bacteria and you put it in a bag of chips all the chips will get contaminated with the bacteria from your hand. Another reason why not washing your hands causes many gross things to happen is because not washing your hands can increase your risk of getting food poisoning. You could get food poisoning by preparing and eating food with dirty hands because  fecal matter might end up in your food. 

Some vocab words from my article are: 

Disease- any harmful, depraved of morbid condition
 

Food borne- an illness resulting from the spoilage or contamination of food
 

Germ- a microorganism that usually causes diseases 

Contaminated- to make unsuitable by contact with something unclean 

Accumulate- to gather or collect 

Antibiotics- a large group of chemical substances used in the treatment of infectious diseases 

https://www.bustle.com/articles/153213-11-gross-things-that-can-happen-when-you-dont-wash-your-hands-enough 

 

vocab: