bubonic plague

plague (plāg) a severe acute or chronic infectious disease due to Yersinia pestis, beginning with chills and fever, quickly followed by prostration, often with delirium, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea; primarily a disease of rats and other rodents, it is transmitted to humans by flea bites, or communicated from patient to patient.

---

bubonic plague  plague with swelling of the lymph nodes, which form buboes in the femoral, inguinal, axillary, and cervical regions; in the severe form, septicemia occurs, producing petechial hemorrhages.

pneumonic plague , pulmonic plague a rapidly progressive, highly contagious pneumonia with extensive involvement of the lungs and productive cough with mucoid, bloody, foamy, plague bacilli-laden sputum.

sylvatic plague  plague in wild rodents, such as the ground squirrel, which serve as a reservoir from which humans may be infected.

---

bubonic plague

n.

A contagious, often fatal epidemic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted from person to person or by the bite of fleas from an infected host, especially a rat, and characterized by chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and the formation of buboes.

---

bubonic plague

[byo̅o̅bon′ik]

Etymology: Gk, boubon, groin; L, plaga, stroke

the most common form of plague. It is characterized by painful buboes in the axilla, groin, or neck; fever often rising to 106° F (41.11° C); prostration with a rapid, thready pulse; hypotension; delirium; and bleeding into the skin from the superficial blood vessels. The symptoms are caused by an endotoxin released by a bacillus, Yersinia pestis, usually introduced into the body by the bite of a rat flea that has bitten an infected rat. Inoculation with plague vaccine confers partial immunity; infection provides lifetime immunity. Treatment includes antibiotics, supportive nursing care, surgical drainage of buboes, isolation, and stringent precautions against spread of the disease. Conditions favor a plague epidemic when a large infected rodent population lives with a large nonimmune human population in a damp, warm climate. Improved sanitary conditions and eradication of rats and other rodent reservoirs of Y. pestis may prevent outbreaks of the disease. Killing the infected rodents, which may include ground squirrels and rabbits, and not the fleas allows a continued threat of human infection. It is a possible agent of bioterrorism if the bacilli are aerosolized and has the highest potential for negative public health. Also called

Usage notes: (informal)

black death, black plague. Compare pneumonic plague, septicemic plague. See also bubo, plague, Yersinia pestis.

---

bubonic

characterized by or pertaining to buboes.

---

bubonic plague

a highly contagious and severe disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis carried in infected rats and transmitted to humans by fleas. See also plague.

---

plague

an epidemic of disease attended by great mortality.

---

bubonic plague

an acute febrile, infectious, highly fatal disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis. It is primarily a disease of rats and other rodents, dogs and cats, and is usually spread to humans by fleas. The more common form of plague is the bubonic. There is also a pneumonic type in humans, which can be spread directly from person to person by droplet infection. The clinical signs in all species are fever, vomiting and enlargement of lymph nodes, the buboes that give the disease its name.

cattle plague

see rinderpest.

duck plague

an acute infectious disease of ducks caused by a herpesvirus and characterized by tissue hemorrhages and blood free in body cavities, eruptions on the mucosae of the digestive tract, degeneration of parenchymatous organs and lesions in lymph nodes. Called also duck virus enteritis.

equine plague

see african horse sickness.

fowl plague

see avian influenza.

pneumonic plague

see bubonic plague (above).

septicemic plague

hematogenous spread of infection to many organs may occur without the formation of buboes; occurs in the cat with pulmonary involvement, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and death.

swine plague

see swine plague.

sylvatic plague

bubonic plague in wild animals in uninhabited areas. See also sylvatic plague.

---

bubonic plague

Black death, black plague Infectious disease A rare bacterial infection due to Yersinia pestis; in its full-blown fulminant form–explosive Y pestis growth–may kill in 24 hrs, by destroying normal tissues; after 3 days of incubation, high fever, black blotchy rashes–DIC plus petechial hemorrhage, delirium; bursting of a bubo–a massively enlarged lymph node–is painful enough to 'raise the dead' Clinical Painful, enlarged lymph nodes, fever, headache, prostration, pneumonia, sepsis Epidemiology Y pestis is transmitted by Oriental rat fleas–Xenopsylla cheopis, which bite the rat, ingesting Y pestis; these rapidly reproduce in the flea, forming a 'plug' of obstructing bacteria in the flea's gut, making the flea ravenously hungry, which goes into a feeding frenzy, repeatingly biting the rat and regurgitating Y pestis; once the usual hosts–rats–die, the fleas becomes less discriminating and attack any mammal; in humans, aerosol is the common mode of transmission Incubation 2-10 days Mortality Without antibiotics, nearly 100%; with antibiotics, 5%. See Yersinia pestis.