Bubonic Plague

8 Pages 2081 Words

e a 100 percent fatality rate while the bubonic plague is 60 percent. The Bubonic Plague was treatable and the affected could survive after treatment. Currently, HIV/AIDS has an inevitable result: death because we have yet to find a cure.

Why was the bubonic plague more feared even though it wasn’t as deadly? Mainly because the pneumonic and septicemic plagues affected the body internally and they did not show its damage externally; the pneumonic plague attacks the lungs while the septicemic plague attacks the blood stream. With the Bubonic plague, it mainly attacks the lymph node and causes them to swell. “The swelling protrudes and is easily visible; its blackish coloring gives the disease its name: the Black Death.”(pg. 5)

The plague grew its fastest in the cities because of the high rodent population. It
was usually carried by the rats but the rats were infested with fleas. These would move
around and begin to infest humans, but while infesting humans the rats would regurgitate the plague-carrying blood onto them. While man, woman, and rodent died because of this plague, the fleas continue to live unaffected by the disease and continues to spread it. “The swiftness of the disease, the terrible pain, the grotesque appearance of the victims, all served to make the plague especially terrifying.” (pg. 5) Like the Bubonic Plague, HIV/AIDS spread from animal to human. So how exactly did HIV/AIDS cross species from chimpanzees to humans? One theory states that transfer occurred through zoonosis, passing viruses from animal to human, when a human killed and ate an infected chimp. Another theory involves the oral polio vaccine called Chat, which was grown in chimp kidney cells. I...