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The next outbreak.....

I personally think the next outbreak will occur in the western part of the United States or in Peru. I say this because there was a small outbreak in Peru on July 1, 2010. Although the people of Peru took a lot of necessary measures after the outbreak, the area is prone to have cases of Plague. There are a lot of wild animals there, like guinea pigs for example, that can have fleas. Those fleas bite the infected rodent and then bite a human, transferring the Bubonic form of Plague. In the western part of the U.S., there are also a lot of small rodents which carry fleas. The same process happens as in Peru. The flea carries the disease from the rodent to humans.

Pie Chart and Bar Graph

These two graphs go together and display cases of Plague in Arizona. They cases took place between the years 1950 and 2000. The victims are grouped by ages.  

The first chart shows the percentage of cases that affected the different age groups.

 The second graph shows how many out of each of the age groups survived and how many died. The blue bar is the total amount of people in that age group, the red bar is how many of the people survived, and the green bar shows how many people died.

lanamccrackan's photostream on Flickr.

Important Facts

1. Caused by the bacterium "Yersinia Pestis"
2. Prevalent all around the world
3. First appeared as early as in the Hebrew Bible
4. Three different types of manifestations
5. Bubonic form characterized by the formation of buboes on the skin
6. Pneumonic form affects the person's lungs
7. Septicemic form affects the victim's blood
8. The initial disease is passed from an infected rodent and a human, by a bite
9. Bubonic --> Pneumonic --> Septicemic
10. Any form of this disease needs treated immediately
11. Needs lab testing to confirm diagnosis 
12. Symptoms usually occur within 2-5 days
13. Without treatment, 50% of patients with Bubonic Plague will die
14. Receiving medical treatment reduces the risk of death by 50%
15. Prevention is key
16. There is a vaccine available, but it is only for people that have a high risk of contracting the disease
17. The vaccination is more of a prevention tool rather than a treatment tool
18. There are many antibiotics to treat the different types of Plague
19. There are still cases of this disease appearing everyday
20. Plague compares to Anthrax, Bacillary Bysentary, Botulism, Brucellosis, Cholera, Glardiasis, Hepatitis, Paratyphoid, and Typhoid Fever
21. General symptoms of any type of Plague include: fever, chills, headache, cough, and difficulty breathing
22. Life-threatening complications of Plague include shock, high fever, problems with blood clotting, and convulsions
23. Different types of transmission: vector borne, indirect contact, airborne, fecal-oral, and droplet contact
24. Bubonic; non-transferable from human to human
25. Pneumonic and Septicemic; transferable from human to human