Septicemic Plague

Septicemic Plague

Septicemic (or septicaemic) plague is a deadly blood infection, one of the three main forms of plague. It is caused by Yersinia pestis, a gram-negative bacterium.

Like some other forms of gram-negative sepsis, septicemic plague can cause disseminated intravascular coagulation, and is almost always fatal without treatment (the mortality rate in medieval times was 99-100 percent). Septicemic plague is the rarest of the three plague varieties; the other forms are bubonic and pneumonic plague.