Bubonic Plague Playing cards

Bubonic plague, which is commonly referred to as plague, is a deadly infectious disease, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. This bacterium, transmitted through the bite of a flea, has caused the death of millions of people. The epidemiological use of the term "plague" is currently applied to bacterial infections that cause buboes, although historically the medical use of the term plague has been applied to pandemic infections generally. A bubo is a swelling of the lymph nodes. A pandemic is an epidemic (an outbreak of an infectious disease) that spreads across a large region, such as a continent, or even worldwide). The plague is one of the most feared of all diseases. It is easily transmittable and has a high mortality. But today it can be cured through antibiotics, thanks in large measure to a few doctors and scientists who courageously risked their lives in experiments whose results have allowed countless other lives to be saved. On the other hand, while the creativity and courage of doctors and scientists have been essential to resolving the cause, transmission route, and cure of this dreaded disease, similar human capacities have likewise been applied in developing the use of this disease as a biological weapon. Such use of the plague traces at least to mediaeval Europe, when infected remains of animals and humans were used to contaminate enemy water supplies and plague victims were tossed into cities under siege. More recently, during the twentieth century, modern nations developed various means of weaponising plague. During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army not only developed weaponised plague, but deliberately infected Chinese civilians and prisoners of war to study the disease. (See Plague as a biological weapon.)