Brandy Bowling
BIO-110-E02
04/28/2017
Research Paper on Yersinia Pestis
Yersinia Pestis is a bacteria (Palmer). And the common name for Yersinia Pestis is Y. pestis and its scientific name is as stated before Yersinia Pestis (Brubaker). And while there are nineteen species of Yersinia, only three of those species “are etiological agents in humans”(Brubaker), and Yersinia Pestis is actually one of them. The other two species are “Y. enterocolitica, and Y. pseudotuberculosis” (Brubaker).
The organism, Yersinia Pestis maintains its “ existence in a cycle” (“Plague Ecology and Transmission” ) that involves rodents and fleas that attach themselves on the already infected rodents(“Plague Ecology and Transmission”). And due to the mild death rate of certain rodents, Scientist actually believe that Yersinia Pestis circulate at low rates within populations. And that the rodents that didn't die actually become “ long- term” carriers (“Plague Ecology and Transmission”). This cycle is called “the enzootic cycle” (“Plague Ecology and Transmission”).“Occasionally, other species become infected, causing an outbreak …show more content…
Bacteria can then spread to other organ systems, especially the lungs; fever, chills, prostration, and death may occur” (Palmer). There is also a ten to twenty percent chance that you can get plague pneumonia if you are bitten by a flea that is a plague vector (Palmer). “ Pneumonia starts as a secondary lung infection during bubonic/solpticemic disease; it may then be transmitted from human to human by bacterial aerosols that are spread by coughing. It has a rapid course in close quarters and is almost universally fatal if untreated. In some individuals, the skin