Diseases that cause a massive devastation in a given geographical region pose a major threat. Being contagious can spread easily and their prevention becomes herculean task for health care professionals. The present paper is concerned with highlighting a disease known as plague that caused epidemic in the 13th century in United States. Plague, also known Bubonic plague, is an infectious disease that results from the causative agent Yersinia pestis. Infected rats play role in spreading he disease to humans and it is visually characterized by increased lymph nodes in the regions of neck, groin, armpits and other regions (Plague Glossary, 2012). Plague has derived it’s another name “Black death”. In epic percentages, it has caused death of people and is considered as medieval pandemic in history. In detail, between the years 1348 and 1350 Black Death occurred. European population of nearly 30 to 60% has fallen victims to Black Death which indicates the death of 450 million in the year 1400 (Baxamusa,2011). The disease was first believed to occur in China in the year 1328 when an outbreak had occurred. This made the reduction of Chinese population from 125 million to 90 million in short period of 50 years. The disease next made its way to Bristol, and then to London, England. The reasons for rapid spreading of disease were suspected to be poor living conditions associated with Overpopulation. In London city, from the overall population of 70,000, nearly 20,000 people died. A person could be hanged, if maintained a distance of 12 feet from the infected individual and comes to other or new location. This is because such persons were considered as carriers of disease and could spread (Baxamusa, 2011).
In the year, 1350 Black Death cases were reported to be subsided. In the 19th century, after being eliminated from Europe, the disease was last reported. Nearly 180 deaths reported in Africa in 2003 and 50 deaths from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2006.
Over the past few decades, developing nations like India and developed countries like United States have reported plague cases (Baxamusa, 2011).To better control the infection, a US agency named the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC has come forward. The objective of this agency is to track and probe the trends in public health. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, this agency is part of the US Public Health Services (PHS) under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (Plague Glossary, 2012).So the US public health system would handle this epidemic by prevention and control measures. These may involve risk reduction where strategies on decreasing wild rodents and fleas in the environment of plague infected areas are targeted. Such approaches would be implemented at work places, houses and entertainment centers which may become the high sources of plague infections (Prevention and Control, 2005). For this, environmental sanitation is important, initially. Sources that supply or synthesize food would be eliminated that are used by rodents, make homes and buildings (Prevention and Control, 2005). As ships were considered the earlier sources of Black Death epidemic, they would be regulated by expert inspecting individuals and for fumigation if needed Educational awareness would be created among the medical community and public to get rid of contacts with infected animals and their fleas (Prevention and Control, 2005). The society would be given many recommendations watching and reporting to the local health officials, eliminating all possible sources that serve as breeding grounds for rodents, and finally making the area rodent proof with use of flea killing chemicals, sprays or disinfectants (Prevention and Control, 2005). Prophylactic measures would also be taken with antibiotics Sulfonamides or tetracyclinesfor a short period to prevent infection from persons bitten with infected rodent fleas or who contacted infected animals during outbreak (Prevention and Control, 2005).
References
Baxamusa Batul Nafisa. (2011).Black Death Facts. Web.
Plague Glossary of Terms. (2012). Web.
Prevention and Control. (2005). Web.