• Question: will the bubonic plague diesese come back

    Asked by tapo koko to Senga, Pete on 9 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Pete Gwynne

      Pete Gwynne answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      the plague has never completely gone away! it’s very rare in this country, but there are still a few hundred people a year get the plague in america and parts of asia. luckily we know a lot about it and it’s quite easy to cure now, so it isn’t as dangerous as it used to be. it’s caused by a bacteria called Yersinia and you can get rid of it by taking antibiotic tablets.

    • Photo: Senga Robertson

      Senga Robertson answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      Hi Tapo koko

      I am really enjoying your questions.

      So bubonic plague is caused by the bacteria called Yersinia pestis, because bacteria can multiply so quickly and can be very adaptable to their environments it’s quite hard to get rid of an entire type of bacteria across the whole world so you do still find Yersinia pestis and even now the world health organisation think as many as 1000-2000 people across the world are infected with it each year. However, here are some facts about the plague:
      1-95% of plague cases are in Madagascar and sub-saharan Africa – actually the last “outbreak” was in Madagascar in August this year…over 1800 people were confirmed or suspected to be infected, of those people 127 died. Luckily we live nowhere near there so that’s good.
      2-Yersinia pestis naturally infects rodents (mainly rats), rats have fleas and fleas drink their blood for food. When they do that it means the fleas then also carry the plague (but they don’t die). If something happens that results in lots of rats dying then the fleas need to find a new source of blood to survive so they might end up trying to feed on pets or even humans. If they do this they can infect the pet or human with the plague. If someones pet is infected then they can pass this on to their owner.
      3-The plague doesn’t tend to have outbreaks in urban areas (the last one was in the 1920s) and they tend to be in arid areas (places with low rainfall)….living in the UK low rainfall really isn’t something we need to worry about either.
      4-in the incredibly unlikely event that someone in the UK was infected by the plague it’s actually really easily treated (providing they go to their Doctor when they start feeling unwell) by antibiotics (antibiotics are a medicine specially designed to kill bacteria). One of the antibiotics that kills plague is called streptomycin.

      so…. plague is still around but it’s not something to worry about because it doesn’t like our weather and we have medicine that can easily cure it now. YAY.

      Senga 🙂

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