Researcher Dies After Studying Plague Bacteria 143
Malcolm J. Casadaban, a molecular genetics professor at the University of Chicago, died last Sunday, seemingly from an infection of a weakened form of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague. "Because this form of the bacteria is not known to cause problems in healthy people, special safety procedures are not required to handle it, said Dr. Kenneth Alexander, a virologist and chief of pediatric infections at the U. of C. Medical Center. Lab researchers who work with the bacteria would typically wear gloves, a lab coat and protective goggles, and the bacteria would be disposed of in a biohazard bag and heated for about two hours, Alexander said. Two key questions in Casadaban's death will be whether there was anything different about the strain of bacteria he was handling and whether Casadaban had any underlying conditions that may have made him more susceptible to infection."
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:We're screwed (Score:5, Informative)
Fleas->Rats ->Fleas->Humans
Re:A brief rememberence of Prof. Casadaban (Score:1, Informative)
May he rest in piece.
Ultimately we ALL will rest in piece.
I suspect you meant peace.
Re:We're screwed (Score:5, Informative)
If I understand correctly, the plague wasn't transmitted from human to human, but rather from lice to humans. Since lice are nowhere near as prevalent as they used to be, you don't normally have to fear an outbreak.
Not necessarily. [amazon.com]
The author makes a convincing argument that the Black Death was actually spread by droplet based transmission.
The plague never went away. Even after the last pandemic, people still have been contracting the plague. Yersinia pestis is still endemic among rodents in Europe, Asia and the USA. Small outbreaks, with the exact same symptoms still occur today from time to time. The history of this disease is extremely well documented, and not at all controversial.
When the infection reaches the lungs it's called Pneumonic plague, it spreads via droplets and is extremely contageous. When it infects the lymph nodes, it's called Bubonic plague. It's the same disease, just in a different organ. When the infection reaches the blood, it's called Septic Plague.
It's not as dangerous now, because we don't commonly share our homes with rodents and lice anymore, and with prompt treatment with antibiotics, the prognosis is decent.
Now I haven't read that book that you linked to, so I don't know what arguments they make, but a hypothesis that states that the black death was a different disease with the exact same symptoms as a very well known and documented disease that still occurs today seems needlessly complicated to me.
Re:We're screwed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:third key question (Score:4, Informative)
*sigh*
Silly boy. We want to make sure some poor bastard isn't buried alive, so we drain ALL of his blood!! Even vampires don't walk again once we've flushed their radiators with Drano!!