Pneumonic plague

The pneumonic plague is a form of Peste which is rarer than the Bubonic plague, but definitely more mortal and extrèmement contagious. She occurs when the bacillus reached the Poumon S and, without adapted treatment, is mortal in three days.

The primary pulmonary plague

It can be transmitted by air by a patient reached of bubonic plague. The contagion is done by contact with infected organic liquids, or by the inhalation of droplets suspended in the air emitted by an infected person presenting of the Expectoration S, i.e. who coughs or sneezes by emitting infected secretions. It can be propagated by contact with the clothing or bed linen contaminated by infected organic liquids.

In this case, the time of incubation is shorter than in the bubonic plague and hard from two to three days. The primary symptoms in addition to the Fever, concentrate on the respiratory sphere: Cough, dyspnea (difficulty of breathing) with possibly production of hémoptoïques and purulent expectorations (the patient coughs and spits of blood and the infected pus). Then one notes a invasive Pneumopathie dyspnéisante with edema organic person in charge of a acute respiratory distress resulting in death.

The secondary pulmonary plague

In 12% of the cases of plague, the pulmonary plague made following a bubonic plague or a septicemic not or badly neat. The bacillus ( Yersinia pestis ) invades the Poumon S by blood way and infects the pulmonary parenchyma directly. The patients are reached of a pseudo-grippal syndrome, Toux dries, cephalgias (headaches), Fièvre, then a severe pneumopathy develops: Cough with spittles hémoptoïques known as “syrup of raspberry”, pains thoracic, Fever raised, then Coma.

Conclusion

This fatal disease is propagated by respiratory tract with short times of incubation and resulting in death within also short times. Its contagiousness is important. All these elements contribute to make plague a frightening infectious illness at the origin of three pandemias devastators.

See too

The principal article:

the Plague
Yersinia pestis

Other clinical forms of plague:

History of the epidemic of plague:

List of the epidemics of plague
the Black Death (Pandemia of 1347).

Random links: