Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: melaniejs on 06/03/2020 16:48:56
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Robert asks:
I understand the black death has spread to 10 countries in Africa and on the American continent due to a small flea, which only gives 24 hours to live. Why are we not treating this like the coronavirus?
Anyone can help Robert out?
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A few factors.
It's not new
It's treatable
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The black death in the middle ages was caused by a bacterium, Yersinia Pestis.
This bacterium still exists today, and is endemic in the USA (more common in western USA).
- The bacterium is very deadly, killing about half of its victims, in 3-7 days.
- The first symptom is blackened, swollen lymph nodes (or "buboes"). These led to the names "black death" and "bubonic plague"
- But, unlike the middle ages, we can now treat it quite effectively with antibiotics.
As doctors have been trying to tell people, antibiotics do not treat viral infections (like the common cold, influenza or corona virus).
The likely outcomes for this corona virus are:
- We contain the corona virus: eg by testing and isolating infected patients (but that seems increasingly unlikely)
- It becomes a pandemic: This leaves a lot of people with immunity, and it may then die out on its own (unfortunately killing quite a few people on the way)
- It becomes endemic: new people catch it every year, like some other corona viruses in humans that cause cold-like symptoms
- Or we produce a vaccine: This might take a year or so. Note that the above outcomes may have occurred before the vaccine becomes available, rendering any organisation willing to spend the $10 Billion or so badly out of pocket. This has happened with previous urgent vaccine developments, leaving the big pharmaceutical companies wary of making a big investment; this leaves it to governments and wealthy charities (like the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, who have invested in RNA vaccine technology).
See map and photo of bubonic plague at: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubonic_plague#History