There is no danger of plague from her: a rat in Berlin-Moabit.
Foto: DPA/Jens Kalane
It sounds like the Middle Ages, but has really only happened now: a man is ill in California on the plague. Steffen, why is there this disease today?
It is not so easy to exterminate. In principle, you would have to exterminate all the fleas of rodents that potentially carry the bacterium.
An impossible project.
Exactly. In addition, that would not really be conducive to the environment.
So the pester path has survived for a thousand years?
It is much longer among us. At least since the ancient Romans – under Emperor Justinian there was the first plague epidemic described. In the animal kingdom, the pathogen exists well and gladly 1500 to 2000 years. And somewhere in Asia he apparently went to humans for the first time.
The big plague epidemic in Europe was later?
It got really bad in the 14th century. Depending on the source, there died from one and two thirds of the population. At the same time, this has significantly promoted early capitalist development. Outside of Europe, the plague occurred from time to time – although not with the same lethal.
Where does the pathogen still occur today?
Wherever there are large rodents where the bacterium still exists. That ranges from India to Africa to the southwest of the United States. There are people there, especially in hunting expeditions or hikes in the field.
And with us?
There seems to be no rodent in Europe that is infected with the pathogen. The hiking rat that has replaced the house rat with us apparently does not seem to have tolerated pest infected fleas in the past. Or vice versa the fleas with her.
If there is an illness, what is the treatment?
There are suitable antibiotics. You just have to know in good time that it is the plague.
Dr. Schmidt explains the world
Dr. Steffen SchmidtBorn in 1952, the universal scholar of the editorial team is. He knows an answer to almost every question – and if not, he answers another. Christian Klemm spoke to him about a pester disease in the United States.
What does a typical pester disease look like?
There are two different disease courses: the lung and the bump plague. If the bacterium gets into a human body through a flea stitch, then it usually comes to the bump plague. Dark bumps form on the lymph nodes as a result of bruises, which then swell because the immune reaction increases massively there. Because the blood coins, it takes on a dark color. Therefore the name of black death. The lung plague, on the other hand, is usually triggered by a droplet infection. However, there can also be sepsis in both courses of illness, which is fatal.
What signs are there in the early stage of the disease?
You quickly get a high fever and feel bad.
This is also the case with a thousand other diseases.
The swelling mentioned later occurs. The infection can certainly only be recognized at the beginning only by proving the pathogen in blood, pus or in the lymph nodes.