Plague was one of the most dreaded diseases in the world with bubonic plague being the most common form. Bubonic plague came to be known as Black Death when, in the 14th century, it swept through Europe killing millions of people. India also suffered from an outbreak in 1994 after a plague-free period from 1966. A few areas of  Maharashtra and Gujarat were affected and the benefit from that was the stringent cleanliness rules that were put in place by the local administration which reduced the impact of the disease.Bubonic plague enters the human body through the skin after it is punctured by the bite of an infected flea that is normally found on rodents, mostly rats. The infection spreads through the lymphatics and results in swelling in the groin, armpits and the neck. Left untreated it kills the patient within a week. When the infection spreads into the lungs it results in pneumonic plague and when it infects the blood it produces septicemic plague.
The massive toll of human life taken by plague in the years gone by resulted from the absence of  a cure. Today, however, there are so many classes of antibiotics which provide total cure.