Black death symptoms

In modern science, considering the manner of infection, localization and the prevalence of the disease there are several clinical forms of plague, these are:

- Bubonic

- Pulmonary or pneumonic

- Septicemic

The symptoms

The symptoms of the black death start when the bubonic plague pathogen enters the blood through the bite of the fleas. At the first protective “boundary” (in the regional lymph nodes), it is captured by the white blood cells. Plague bacilli are adapted to the reproduction in the phagocytes. As a result, the lymph nodes lose their protective function, becoming a “factory of microbes.” In the lymph node itself an acute inflammatory process develops, in which his capsule and the surrounding tissues are drawn. The result is a large painful seal – the primary bubo. The Lymphatic agents can penetrate into the nearest lymph nodes, forming the secondary buboes of the first order.

In case of bubonic plague the bubo loses the ability to stop infection, the pathogens enter the blood and that is how one of the black death symptoms develops – the transient bacteremia. The plague bacillus get deteriorated in the blood and exude the toxins that cause severe toxicity up to an infectious-toxic shock. Considering the transient bacteremia a specific so-called “drift” of the pathogen is possible, it goes to the distant lymph nodes with the formation of the secondary bubo of the second order. The breach of the blood clotting factors, due to emissions of the substances exuded by the bacteria, contributes to the development of bleeding, hematoma formations that have dark purple color (because of this black plague symptom the disease has the name “black death”).

Septicemic plague

In case of septicemic plague (it occurs due to the high virulence of the pathogen) the primary buboes are missing. Bypassing the regional lymph nodes, the micro-organisms are getting into the blood and are being spread to all organs.

What is especially dangerous is the lungs disease. The microbes and their toxins break the walls of the alveoli. The patient begins to spread the plague pathogen through the airborne droplets. The primary pneumonic plague occurs through the airborne route of infection, it is characterized by the fact that the primary process develops in the alveoli (another symptom). The clinical picture is characterized by a rapid development and progression of the respiratory insufficiency.
Each of the clinical forms of plague has its own black death symptoms and characteristics. Professor Braude describes the behavior of the patient and the type of bubonic plague in the early days of the disease:

The appearance of the patient, his behavior, mental state and motor function immediately draw attention and serve as a basis for the notion of the word “crazy.” Sudden hyperemia of the face, its “puffiness”, severe hyperemia of the mucous eye membranes and of the upper respiratory tract with a small icteritiousness completes the picture of the psychic excitement.

The patient’s face received its name from the Latin language – “facies pestica”, to the analogy of another Latin term “facies Hippocratica” (the mask of Hippocrates), meaning the face of a dying person.

When the pathogen gets in the blood (from buboes or in case of septicemic form of plague), already in a few hours after the disease begins to affect the organism, another black death symptom shows itself – the hemorrhages and mucous membranes appear on the skin. The presence of the abundant dark hemorrhages, sometimes confluent, led to one of the scary names of this disease – the “Black Death”.