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Researcher Dies After Studying Plague Bacteria
Malcolm J. Casadaban, a molecular genetics professor at the University of Chicago, died last Sunday, seemingly from an infection of a weakened form of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague. "Because this form of the bacteria is not known to cause problems in healthy people, special safety procedures are not required to handle it, said Dr. Kenneth Alexander, a virologist and chief of pediatric infections at the U. of C. Medical Center. Lab researchers who work with the bacteria would typically wear gloves, a lab coat and protective goggles, and the bacteria would be disposed of in a biohazard bag and heated for about two hours, Alexander said. Two key questions in Casadaban's death will be whether there was anything different about the strain of bacteria he was handling and whether Casadaban had any underlying conditions that may have made him more susceptible to infection."
Fleas->Rats ->Fleas->Humans
I took a lab class from him on genetic engineering in the late 90s. Though he was a little eccentric at times, and spoke with an incredibly soft voice, I remember him as a professor who would spend countless hours with the undergraduate students, teaching them to learn the basics of molecular biology - the U of C will be worse off without this devotion, without him. He even wrote me a recommendation letter for graduate school, but I've lost touch with him since then, now, to my infinite regret. May he rest in piece.
"An initial autopsy showed that Casadaban "showed no obvious cause of death"", the report goes on to state that the found the bacteria in his bloodstream.
What was his white cell count? Were cytokines present in his bloodstream? Was his lymphatic system showing signs of duress (engorged, trapped glands; cell death)?
I'm also a bit wary of the fact that the report was released from the University Medical Center where the man worked, not the local Medical Examiner's office. I'd love to see a second conclusion, and not have to fear that the University is doing this as a publicity stunt for their research programme.
Going to be a real embarassment if we find out he died of a cheeseburger, or embollism, or insulin-related shock.
If I get out of my car and promptly drop dead, you're not going to say that driving my car was the cause of death.
If I understand correctly, the plague wasn't transmitted from human to human, but rather from lice to humans. Since lice are nowhere near as prevalent as they used to be, you don't normally have to fear an outbreak.
Not necessarily.
The author makes a convincing argument that the Black Death was actually spread by droplet based transmission.
The plague never went away. Even after the last pandemic, people still have been contracting the plague. Yersinia pestis is still endemic among rodents in Europe, Asia and the USA. Small outbreaks, with the exact same symptoms still occur today from time to time. The history of this disease is extremely well documented, and not at all controversial.
When the infection reaches the lungs it's called Pneumonic plague, it spreads via droplets and is extremely contageous. When it infects the lymph nodes, it's called Bubonic plague. It's the same disease, just in a different organ. When the infection reaches the blood, it's called Septic Plague.
It's not as dangerous now, because we don't commonly share our homes with rodents and lice anymore, and with prompt treatment with antibiotics, the prognosis is decent.
Now I haven't read that book that you linked to, so I don't know what arguments they make, but a hypothesis that states that the black death was a different disease with the exact same symptoms as a very well known and documented disease that still occurs today seems needlessly complicated to me.
That's true. In fact, most public campgrounds here in California have signs warning of plague danger and advising people to keep their distance from ground squirrels, which are known carriers of the yersinia pestis bacterium.
This ain't rocket surgery.
So I work in the same building as this lab, use the same elevators, touch the same door handles etc. I'm not too worried, but plenty of people are and have been since they started working with your *more dangerous than ecoli* varieties. What really pissed me off is that if I had not heard about this from a PI down the hall yeasterday I would have found out about this through /. I can understand why the UoC doesnt send out alerts like this via email to everyone, but some people do need to know. The PI down the hall basically said "shit shit, god damn it, shit, the cdc will be here to deal with and who knows if we'll be allowed to stay," probably a slight over-reaction, but as my mother the md mph said "this is one of those NEVER things." Anyway, I was very sorry to hear about this, also as TFA says, we really dont know if this was a opportunistic infection that was able to get in because he was already sick or what.