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Journal of Vector Ecology : Journal of... Jun 2019Yersinia pestis, a bacterial pathogen that causes sylvatic plague, is present in the prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) of North America. Epizootics of sylvatic plague through... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Yersinia pestis, a bacterial pathogen that causes sylvatic plague, is present in the prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) of North America. Epizootics of sylvatic plague through transmission in vectors (fleas) commonly completely extirpate colonies of prairie dogs. Wildlife managers employ a wide variety of insecticidal treatments to suppress plague and conserve prairie dog colonies. I compiled and statistically compared the available literature describing methods of plague control and their relative effectiveness in managing plague outbreaks by using meta-analyses. Natural log response ratios were used to calculate insecticide-induced vector mortality and vaccine-conferred survival increases in prairie dogs in 37 publications. Further, subgroupings were used to explore the most effective of the available vector suppression insecticides and plague suppression vaccines. After accounting for the type of treatment used and the method by which it was applied, I observed plague reduction through use of both insecticides and vaccines. Insecticides resulted in a significant reduction of the abundance of vectors by 91.34% compared to non-treated hosts (p<0.0001). Vaccines improved survival of prairie dog hosts by 4.00% (p<0.0001) compared to control populations. The use of insecticides such as deltamethrin and carbaryl is recommended to stop actively spreading epizootics, and dual antigen oral vaccines to initially suppress outbreaks.
Topics: Animals; Disease Outbreaks; Flea Infestations; Insecticides; Plague; Plague Vaccine; Risk Factors; Sciuridae; Vaccination
PubMed: 31124237
DOI: 10.1111/jvec.12323 -
International Journal of Infectious... Nov 2017Plague is a virulent zoonosis reported most commonly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Early treatment with antibiotics is important to prevent mortality. Understanding knowledge...
BACKGROUND
Plague is a virulent zoonosis reported most commonly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Early treatment with antibiotics is important to prevent mortality. Understanding knowledge gaps and common behaviors informs the development of educational efforts to reduce plague mortality.
METHODS
A multi-stage cluster-sampled survey of 420 households was conducted in the plague-endemic West Nile region of Uganda to assess knowledge of symptoms and causes of plague and health care-seeking practices.
RESULTS
Most (84%) respondents were able to correctly describe plague symptoms; approximately 75% linked plague with fleas and dead rats. Most respondents indicated that they would seek health care at a clinic for possible plague; however plague-like symptoms were reportedly common, and in practice, persons sought care for those symptoms at a health clinic infrequently.
CONCLUSIONS
Persons in the plague-endemic region of Uganda have a high level of understanding of plague, yet topics for targeted educational messages are apparent.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Child; Endemic Diseases; Female; Health Behavior; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Plague; Rats; Siphonaptera; Uganda; Young Adult
PubMed: 28935246
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2017.09.007 -
Global Change Biology Feb 2022After several pandemics over the last two millennia, the wildlife reservoirs of plague (Yersinia pestis) now persist around the world, including in the western United...
After several pandemics over the last two millennia, the wildlife reservoirs of plague (Yersinia pestis) now persist around the world, including in the western United States. Routine surveillance in this region has generated comprehensive records of human cases and animal seroprevalence, creating a unique opportunity to test how plague reservoirs are responding to environmental change. Here, we test whether animal and human data suggest that plague reservoirs and spillover risk have shifted since 1950. To do so, we develop a new method for detecting the impact of climate change on infectious disease distributions, capable of disentangling long-term trends (signal) and interannual variation in both weather and sampling (noise). We find that plague foci are associated with high-elevation rodent communities, and soil biochemistry may play a key role in the geography of long-term persistence. In addition, we find that human cases are concentrated only in a small subset of endemic areas, and that spillover events are driven by higher rodent species richness (the amplification hypothesis) and climatic anomalies (the trophic cascade hypothesis). Using our detection model, we find that due to the changing climate, rodent communities at high elevations have become more conducive to the establishment of plague reservoirs-with suitability increasing up to 40% in some places-and that spillover risk to humans at mid-elevations has increased as well, although more gradually. These results highlight opportunities for deeper investigation of plague ecology, the value of integrative surveillance for infectious disease geography, and the need for further research into ongoing climate change impacts.
Topics: Animals; Climate Change; Plague; Rodentia; Seroepidemiologic Studies; United States; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 34796590
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15966 -
Scientific Reports Nov 2021The plague of 1630-1632 was one of the deadliest plague epidemics to ever hit Northern Italy, and for many of the affected regions, it was also the last. While accounts...
The plague of 1630-1632 was one of the deadliest plague epidemics to ever hit Northern Italy, and for many of the affected regions, it was also the last. While accounts on plague during the early 1630s in Florence and Milan are frequent, much less is known about the city of Imola. We analyzed the full skeletal assemblage of four mass graves (n = 133 individuals) at the Lazaretto dell'Osservanza, which date back to the outbreak of 1630-1632 in Imola and evaluated our results by integrating new archival sources. The skeletons showed little evidence of physical trauma and were covered by multiple layers of lime, which is characteristic for epidemic mass mortality sites. We screened 15 teeth for Yersinia pestis aDNA and were able to confirm the presence of plague in Imola via metagenomic analysis. Additionally, we studied a contemporaneous register, in which a friar recorded patient outcomes at the lazaretto during the last year of the epidemic. Our multidisciplinary approach combining historical, osteological and genomic data provided a unique opportunity to reconstruct an in-depth picture of the last plague of Imola through the city's main lazaretto.
Topics: Adult; Archaeology; Child; Child, Preschool; DNA, Ancient; DNA, Bacterial; Disease Outbreaks; Female; Geography, Medical; History, 17th Century; Humans; Italy; Male; Metagenome; Metagenomics; Plague; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 34782694
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-98214-2 -
Journal of Infection in Developing... Aug 2016Plague, caused by Yersinia pestitis, is an infectious bacterial disease that has a high fatality rate if untreated. Rodents are plague reservoirs and play an important... (Review)
Review
Plague, caused by Yersinia pestitis, is an infectious bacterial disease that has a high fatality rate if untreated. Rodents are plague reservoirs and play an important role in disease spread. Plague cases have been reported extensively since the second pandemic from the 14th century in countries sharing borders with Pakistan, such as China and India, as well as nearby countries including Russia and central Asia. Despite being centrally located in a plague-infested geographical zone, there has been no plague incidence reported from Pakistan. This study aims to pinpoint some of the potentially important aspects of the disease, which have to be considered when assessing potential risk associated with a plague outbreak in Pakistan. In this context, the occurrence and distribution of plague-associated rodent reservoirs in different regions of Pakistan in relation to those found in the neighboring countries were mapped. In addition, the climatic factors that may also influence disease spread by affecting the growth of the bacteria are also discussed. The combined epidemiological and ecological surveillance studies suggest a prevalence of several potential rodent carriers in certain districts with the possibility of a plague outbreak in Pakistan.
Topics: Animals; Disease Reservoirs; Humans; Pakistan; Phylogeography; Plague; Risk Assessment; Rodentia; Spatial Analysis; Topography, Medical
PubMed: 27482799
DOI: 10.3855/jidc.7091 -
Biomolecules Feb 2021The ability to cause plague in mammals represents only half of the life history of . It is also able to colonize and produce a transmissible infection in the digestive... (Review)
Review
The ability to cause plague in mammals represents only half of the life history of . It is also able to colonize and produce a transmissible infection in the digestive tract of the flea, its insect host. Parallel to studies of the molecular mechanisms by which is able to overcome the immune response of its mammalian hosts, disseminate, and produce septicemia, studies of -flea interactions have led to the identification and characterization of important factors that lead to transmission by flea bite. adapts to the unique conditions in the flea gut by altering its metabolic physiology in ways that promote biofilm development, a common strategy by which bacteria cope with a nutrient-limited environment. Biofilm localization to the flea foregut disrupts normal fluid dynamics of blood feeding, resulting in regurgitative transmission. Many of the important genes, regulatory pathways, and molecules required for this process have been identified and are reviewed here.
Topics: Animals; Biofilms; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Gene Expression Regulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Genomics; Hydrodynamics; Immune System; Insect Vectors; Plague; Signal Transduction; Siphonaptera; Yersinia pestis; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis
PubMed: 33546271
DOI: 10.3390/biom11020210 -
Lancet (London, England) Jun 2020
Topics: History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; Humans; Literature, Modern; London; Medicine in Literature; Pandemics; Plague
PubMed: 32505247
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31243-5 -
Canadian Family Physician Medecin de... Jan 2021
Topics: Humans; Plague
PubMed: 33483385
DOI: 10.46747/cfp.67019 -
Proceedings. Biological Sciences Jul 2021Modern plague outbreaks exhibit a distinct seasonal pattern. By contrast, the seasonality of historical outbreaks and its drivers has not been studied systematically....
Modern plague outbreaks exhibit a distinct seasonal pattern. By contrast, the seasonality of historical outbreaks and its drivers has not been studied systematically. Here, we investigate the seasonal pattern, the epidemic peak timing and growth rates, and the association with latitude, temperature, and precipitation using a large, novel dataset of plague- and all-cause mortality during the Second Pandemic in Europe and the Mediterranean. We show that epidemic peak timing followed a latitudinal gradient, with mean annual temperature negatively associated with peak timing. Based on modern temperature data, the predicted epidemic growth of all outbreaks was positive between 11.7°C and 21.5°C with a maximum around 17.3°C. Hence, our study provides evidence that the growth of plague epidemics across the whole study region depended on similar absolute temperature thresholds. Here, we present a systematic analysis of the seasonality of historical plague in the Northern Hemisphere, and we show consistent evidence for a temperature-related process influencing the epidemic peak timing and growth rates of plague epidemics.
Topics: Disease Outbreaks; Europe; Humans; Pandemics; Plague; Temperature; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 34255997
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2725 -
Clinical Infectious Diseases : An... May 2020Pregnant women are an important at-risk population to consider during public health emergencies. These women, like nonpregnant adults, may be faced with the risk of...
Pregnant women are an important at-risk population to consider during public health emergencies. These women, like nonpregnant adults, may be faced with the risk of acquiring life-threatening infections during outbreaks or bioterrorism (BT) events and, in some cases, can experience increased severity of infection and higher morbidity compared with nonpregnant adults. Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, is a highly pathogenic organism. There are 4 million births annually in the United States, and thus the unique needs of pregnant women and their infants should be considered in pre-event planning for a plague outbreak or BT event.
Topics: Adult; Bioterrorism; Disease Outbreaks; Female; Humans; Infant; Plague; Pregnancy; Public Health; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 32435804
DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciz1232