The Black Death is resurfacing

[WorthyStevens]

Plague a growing but overlooked threat: study

By Michael Kahn 13 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - Plague, the disease that devastated medieval Europe, is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers warned on Tuesday.




While it has only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the past 20 years, plague has appeared in new countries in recent decades and is now shifting into Africa, Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool and colleagues said.
A bacterium known as Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death when it was spread by infected fleas, and the more dangerous pneumonic plague, spread from one person to another through coughing or sneezing.
"Although the number of human cases of plague is relatively low, it would be a mistake to overlook its threat to humanity, because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated," they wrote in the journal Public Library of Science journal PloS Medicine.
Rodents carry plague, which is virtually impossible to wipe out and moves through the animal world as a constant threat to humans, Begon said. Both forms can kill within days if not treated with antibiotics.
"You can't realistically get rid of all the rodents in the world," he said in a telephone interview. "Plague appears to be on the increase, and for the first time there have been major outbreaks in Africa."
Globally the World Health Organization reports about 1,000 to 3,000 plague cases each year, with most in the last five years occurring in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States sees about 10 to 20 cases each year.
More worrying are outbreaks seem on the rise after years of relative inactivity in the 20th century, Begon said. The most recent large pneumonic outbreak comprised hundreds of suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006.
Bubonic plague, called the Black Death because of black bumps that sometimes develop on victims' bodies, causes severe vomiting and high fever. Victims of pneumonic plague have similar symptoms but not the black bumps.
Begon and his colleagues called for more research into better ways to prevent plague from striking areas where people lack access to life-saving drugs and to defend against the disease if used as a weapon.
"We should not overlook the fact that plague has been weaponized throughout history, from catapulting corpses over city walls, to dropping infected fleas from airplanes, to refined modern aerosol formulation," the researchers wrote. (Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Ibon Villelabeitia)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080115/sc_nm/plague_threat_dc

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Guess staff infections and the bird flu weren't working as scare tactics anymore, so they had to go back to the plague.

 

[DV8]

hahaha

 

[Carcharodon]

Guess staff infections and the bird flu weren't working as scare tactics anymore, so they had to go back to the plague.

...and now it's mandatory that we all have to laugh at you when you get the plague.

 

[Captain_BluTac]

I know I should care about this but I really don't

 

[Mee]

You lost me at "by Michael KAAAAAHHHHN."

 

[TNC9852002]

Why not?

-TNC

 

[amazingfantasy15]

...and now it's mandatory that we all have to laugh at you when you get the plague.

People said they'd laugh at me when I got attacked by killer bees, SARS, West Nile, Bird Flu and a Staff Infection, but I'm still here. I'm not too worried about the bubonic plague considering we use a form of it in plastic surgery.

 

[Carcharodon]

People said they'd laugh at me when I got attacked by killer bees, SARS, West Nile, Bird Flu and a Staff Infection, but I'm still here. I'm not too worried about the bubonic plague considering we use a form of it in plastic surgery.

Actually, if you'd read the article you would notice that the primary concern is for the nations that don't have the antibiotics to fight the plague. Even if the plague found itself here, so long as it's caught early it's really no big deal.

Oh, and don't knock the killer bees. You'll only piss them off.

 

[chamber-music]

There is a deadly disease every 2 years thats gonna a kill everyone and it never happens.

 

[PhotoJones]

The white death has already struck in my area.

 

[CorpusBlack]

There is a deadly disease every 2 years thats gonna a kill everyone and it never happens.

It happened, we're dead and forever locked in this eternal groundhog day that we call The Hype!

 

[The-Dark-Knight]

The plague is still about? Thats a bit ****.

 

[tzarinna]

I knew about this and I selectively forgot about it.
Thanks for reminding me!

 

[Ghostvirus]

Damn, where is the guy with the fiddle when you need him?

 

[Go God Go!]

I beat it once, I can do it again.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I **** on black death

 

[Jerry!]

Good thing SARs already took out half the population.

 

[Obi-Ron]

It happened, we're dead and forever locked in this eternal groundhog day that we call The Hype!

I thought this thread looked familiar.

 

[bullets]

There is a deadly disease every 2 years thats gonna a kill everyone and it never happens.

That is of course , until it actually happens . Then you won't hear much about it ... we will all be dead .

 

[chamber-music]

Every Generation thinks its gonna be the one that has the world end on its watch and it never does. We are fatalistic in that way.