Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bubonic plague is mainly spread through the bite of infected fleas, most effectively the Oriental rat flea Xenopsylla cheopis. The disease can also result from contact with body fluids of dead plague-infected animals. When the local rat population collapses from infection, fleas seek other hosts, including humans.
Symptoms appear two to seven days after exposure and include fever, headaches, vomiting, and swollen painful lymph nodes called buboes, most often in the groin, armpits, or neck. The skin at the extremities can darken through a process called acral necrosis. Advanced infection can cause organ failure, delirium, and coma.
Yes. Antibiotics including streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline, and ciprofloxacin are effective. Treatment must begin within 24 hours of first symptoms to prevent death. With treatment, mortality drops to roughly 1% to 15%. Streptomycin administered within 12 hours has proven dramatically effective.
The Black Death of 1346-1352 killed an estimated 50 million people overall and eliminated roughly 25% to 60% of the European population. In some regions, mortality rates reached 70% to 80%.
Alexandre Yersin isolated and conclusively identified the bacterium during the 1894 Hong Kong outbreak. Japanese bacteriologist Kitasato Shibasaburo isolated it a few days earlier, but his description was imprecise and he expressed doubts about its role. The bacterium is named solely after Yersin as Yersinia pestis.
Yes. Between 2010 and 2015, there were 3,248 documented cases globally resulting in 584 deaths. The countries with the most cases are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru. Cases also occur regularly in rural areas of the western United States, where the bacterium circulates in wild rodents.