Early treatment with antibiotics reduces the mortality rate to between 4 and 15 percent. Death is almost inevitable if treatment is delayed more than about 24 hours, and some people may even die on the same day they present with the disease. Epidemiology
In 2015, Taylor Gaes, a 16-year-old in Larimer County in northern Colorado, contracted septicemic plague and subsequently died after being bitten by a flea that had bitten a rodent on his familys rural property. Only three people in Colorado had contracted the bacteria in the previous thirty years. History
Septicemic plague was the least common of the three plague varieties that occurred during the Black Death from 1348 to 1350 (the other two being bubonic plague and pneumonic plague). Like the others, septicemic plague spread from the East through trade routes on the Black Sea and down to the Mediterranean Sea.Major port cities and trade centers such as Venice and Florence were hit the hardest. The massive loss of working population in Europe following the Black Death, resulting in increased economic bargaining power of the serf labour force, was a major precipitating factor for the Peasants Revolt of 1381. Other animals
Septicemic plague is a zoonosis, a disease that generally is acquired by humans from animals, such as rodents and carnivores. Goats, sheep and camels also may carry the bacteria. Cats rarely develop clinical signs but can be infected. Areas west of the Great Plains of North America are one region where plague-infected animals commonly occur.
Septicemic plague is one of the three forms of plague, and is caused by Yersinia pestis, a gram-negative species of bacterium. Septicemic plague is a systemic disease involving infection of the blood, and is most commonly spread by bites from infected fleas. Septicemic plague can cause disseminated intravascular coagulation, and is almost always fatal when untreated. The other varieties of the plague are bubonic plague and pneumonic plague. Signs and symptoms
The usual symptoms are:
Abdominal pain
Bleeding under skin due to blood clotting problems
Bleeding from mouth, nose or rectum
Gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, which can be with blood, and diarrhea
Fever
Chills
Low blood pressure
Organ failure
Shock
Death of tissue (gangrene) in extremities, mostly fingers, nose, and toes
Difficulty breathingThese symptoms are common to many human illnesses, and are not considered, in and of themselves, to signify infection with any form of plague.It is important to note that septicemic plague may be asymptomatic, and may cause death absent of any symptoms. Cause
Transmission
Human Yersinia infections most commonly result from the bite of an infected flea or occasionally an infected mammal, but like most bacterial systemic diseases, the disease may be transmitted through an opening in the skin or by inhaling infectious droplets of moisture from sneezes or coughs. In both cases septicemic plague need not be the result, and in particular, not the initial result, but it occasionally happens that bubonic plague for example leads to infection of the blood, and septicemic plague results.