Septicemic plague

**Septicemic** (or **septicaemic**) **plague** is a deadly blood infection. It is one of the three main forms of plague, which are all caused by a bacterium called _Yersinia pestis_. The other two are called _bubonic plague_ and _pneumonic plague_. Bubonic plague can worsen into septicemic plague, or a person can get septicemic plague in another way.

Without treatment, septicemic plague is almost always fatal. In medieval times, 99% to 100% of people who got this disease died from it.

Septicemic plague was the rarest of the three types of plague that killed between 25 million and 50 million people during the Black Death.

## Cause and spread

Usually, an infected rodent or insect carries the plague. When it bites a human, it can spread plague bacteria to them. The Black Death spread this way, when fleas on infected black rats bit humans.

In rare cases, plague bacteria can enter the body another way. It can get into a person's bloodstream through a cut on their skin. An infected person can also spread the plague in respiratory droplets (for example, by coughing or sneezing).

## Symptoms

Septicemic plague's early symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, nausea, vomiting, and low blood pressure. Without treatment, victims have blood clotting problems which cause severe bleeding; their organs fail; they get sepsis; and then they die.

Septicemic plague can kill very fast - even before symptoms appear.

### Bleeding problems

In septicemic plague, _Yersinian pestis_ bacteria grow quickly in the blood, causing severe sepsis. (This is a life-threatening response to an infection.) Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) can result. In this condition, tiny blood clots form throughout the body. This stops blood from getting to parts of the body. Without blood (and the oxygen it carries), the cells in those body parts die.

DIC uses up the body's ability to make blood clots. As a result, the body can no longer control bleeding. Victims bleed into their skin and other organs. They may cough up blood (hemoptysis) and/or vomiting blood (hematemesis).

DIC can also cause a rash, with bumps on the skin that look like insect bites. These bumps are usually red, and sometimes white in the center.

## Death rate

Without treatment, septicemic plague is fatal, and it can kill very quickly. A person with septicemic plague needs treatment within 24 hours of becoming infected, or they will die.

However, with early antibiotic treatment, a person with septicemic plague can recover.  According to the Cleveland Clinic:> _Immediate treatment with antibiotics will help you survive the plague. With quick treatment, about 90% of people with all forms of plague survive. Without treatment, plague is nearly always fatal. With treatment, there’s a 5 to 15% mortality (death) rate for bubonic plague and around a 50% mortality rate for pneumonic and septicemic plague._

## In the Black Death

_See the main article: The Black Death_

Between 1346 and 1353, a pandemic called the Black Death killed one out of every three people in Europe.

People died from bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague (or a combination of them) during the Black Death. Of these, septicemic plague was the least common.

Like the other forms of plague, septicemic plague spread from the East through trade routes like the Silk Road. Infected people from all around Europe and Asia traveled to major port cities like Venice and Florence, then spread the plague to others there.

The Black Death helped cause the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

## Related pages

- Septicemia
- Bubonic Plague
- Pneumonic plague
- The Black Death
- _Yersinia pestis_

## Other websites

Google Health - Plague

HowStuffWorks - "Septicemic Plague"

de:Pest#Pestsepsis