Click2Disasters - The Black Death - Chapter 3

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>THE BLACK DEATH</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 3 - WHAT IS BUBONIC PLAGUE?</p> <p><font size="2">NOTE: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS.</p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">What <b>is</b> this horrible disease that killed so many people? It is caused by a bacterium called <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/images/wayson.jpg" target=_blank><b><i>Yersinia pestis</i></b></a>. (Follow the link to the Center for Disease Control to see an actual picture of the rod-like bacterium bacillus.) Only one bacterium is enough to fatally infect someone!</p> <p>The bacteria is found in rodents (the black rat during the great pestilence) and is transmitted from rats (and other rodents) to people by <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/images/Cheob6x4_w_inset.jpg" target=_blank><b><i>Xenopsylla cheopis</i></b></a> (the oriental rat flea). Fleas (which jump from rodents to people) parasitically lodge themselves on the backs of their hosts (the rodents). The fleas' ready food source is the blood of the host. (Note how the flea depicted in the link is engorged with its food.) </p> <p>If the host is <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/images/ifa.jpg" target=_blank><b>infected</b></a> the flea is likely to get infected. When the host dies, the flea needs another source of food. That's when the trouble for people really begins. </p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="black_death_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="black_death_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="black_death_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>