230 Years Later: The Cause and A Cure
Source: Alexandre Yersin: Discoverer of the plague bacillus, explorer and agronomist. BJ Hawgood August 2008
ALEXANDRE YERSIN
Alexandre Yersin
It took nearly 230 years, and many more deaths in order to discover the cause and cure this horrible plague.
In 1894, Alexandre Yersin, a member of the French Colonial Health Service, was sent to Hong Kong to research an outbreak of another Bubonic Plague.
In 1894, Alexandre Yersin, a member of the French Colonial Health Service, was sent to Hong Kong to research an outbreak of another Bubonic Plague.
THE 'REAL' CAUSE: YERSINIA PESTIS BACTERIA
Yersinia Pestis Bacteria
While in Hong Kong, he discovered that the cause of the Bubonic Plague was a bacteria and were transmitted by fleas. Fleas would ingest the blood of a contaminated person or rat, and then transfer the disease when it bit another human or rat. The bacteria was named Yersinia Pestis in Dr. Yersin's honor.
THE 'REAL' CURE: THE ANTIBIOTIC
Old Antibiotic Syringe
Once doctors knew that the plague was spread by a bacteria, they were able to create an antibitoic to fight off the disease.