Black Death Plague is a term applied randomly in the Middle Ages to all fatal epidemic diseases, but now restricted to an acute, infectious, contagious disease of rodents and humans, caused by a short, thick bacillus, Yersinia pestis. In humans, plague occurs in three forms: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. Bubonic plague is the best-known form and is so called because it is characterized by the appearance of buboes, or enlarged, inflamed lymph …
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showed last 75 words of 482 total
…the incidence of plague. Famine, which reduces resistance to the disease, results in spread of plague. Individuals who have contracted the disease are isolated, put to bed, and fed fluids and easily digestible foods. Sedatives are used to reduce pain and to quiet delirium. During World War II, scientists using sulfa drugs were able to produce cures of plague; subsequently, streptomycin and tetracycline were found to be more effective in controlling the disease. Bibliography Encarta