1. The plague is now on the list of so-called forgotten diseases. This does not mean that it has disappeared from the face of the planet, no - just that it has been defeated enough that it is no longer a global threat.
2. In the wild, various animals are carriers of the plague. In the temperate zone, these are mostly rodents like gophers and rabbits. There was a local plague outbreak in Mongolia in 2020, the source of which turned out to be a rodent that was eaten by locals who became infected as a result.
Plague has several forms, the main ones being bubonic and pneumonic. In the Middle Ages their mortality rate was about 95-100%, but in our time it has been reduced to about 5-10% due to advances in medicine.
4. There is the so-called lightning plague. This is a form of the disease, which develops very rapidly, sometimes from the moment of infection to the moment of death passes less than a day. The mortality rate from it even now is about 100%, since the patient usually simply does not have time to begin treatment.
5. this dreadful disease originated a long time ago. No one knows exactly when, but the oldest annals mentioning it are about 2,000 years old.
6. In the past, the plague has several times caused global pandemics that covered vast areas. During the so-called "Black Death" in the middle of the 14th century, according to various estimates, from 30% to 60% of the total population of Europe died.
7. This disease is caused by bacteria, plague bacilli. These bacteria are relatively young - scientists claim that it evolved from pseudotuberculosis bacillus from two to twenty thousand years ago.
8. There are many thousands of strains of plague bacillus. In Russia alone in just five years, from 2001 to 2006, over 750 different strains were found.
9. Local outbreaks of plague are recorded worldwide every year, but almost always in the same regions. They occur most often in Madagascar, with more than 2,000 people infected there in 2017.
10. There are no vaccines that protect against the plague 100%. More precisely, there are vaccines, but they do not protect against the pneumonic form of the disease. However, those who have experienced and recovered from the plague have a strong immunity to the disease.
You must be logged in to post a comment.