HTS 2080: The Black Death

Buboes

a swollen, inflamed lymph node in the armpit or groin.

Entiology

study of the cause of disease

Robert Koch

Developed the culture plate method to identify pathogens

Yersinia pestis

bubonic plague

Xenopsylla cheopis

rat flea

Rattus rattus

black rat

Zoonotic diseases (zoonoses)

diseases of animals that may be spread to humans via direct contact with the animal or its waste products, or via an arthropod. Humans may be asymptomatic carriers.

endemic

confined to a particular country or area

prognosis

a prediction of the course of a disease

symptoms

subjective characteristics of disease felt only by the patient

course of disease

how often the disease occurs, how likely it is to be present currently, and what happens once it occurs

Jani Beg

Mongol leader who (allegedly) used biological warfare in Kaffa, Crimea.

pneumonic plague

A lung infection, also known as plague pneumonia, that is the result of inhalation of plague-causing bacteria.

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

sometimes referred to as the father of preventive midicine as the result of bacteria and infectious disease

Alexander Yersin

a Swiss and French physician and bacteriologist who discovered that the bubonic plague is caused by a gram negative bacterium, yersinia pestis (rod shaped)

Koch's Postulates

a sequence of experimental steps for directly relating a specific microbe to a specific disease

Kitisato Shibasabura

used Koch's method, but not as scrupulously so he was not credited with discovering the cause of bubonic plague

Paul-Louis Simond

Proved that fleas transmit plague

Ronald Ross

British doctor who demonstrated that malaria could be transmitted from infected people to mosquitoes (1897)