Quote of the Week

"No one survives untreated septicemic plague, the third form of the disease. The shocklike movement of massive amounts of plague bacili directly into the blood system creates such enormous toxicity that even insects normally incapable of transmitting Y. pestis, such as body lice, can become disease vectors. During one outbreak of septicemic plague in the early twentieth century, the average survival time from onset of symptoms to death was 14.5 hours."
- John Kelly, The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time, pp.22-23, at the end of an explanation of the three forms of Yersina pestis