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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 -
Le Infezioni in Medicina Mar 2021In the year 1630, similarly to other cities of Northern Italy, Bologna was affected by a plague epidemic. It occurred after the arrival of Lansquenet troops, engaged by...
In the year 1630, similarly to other cities of Northern Italy, Bologna was affected by a plague epidemic. It occurred after the arrival of Lansquenet troops, engaged by the Emperor Frederick II in the siege of Mantua city. The human losses have been calculated by the historian demographer Bellettini in the terms of around 15,000 people, so that the number of inhabitants in Bologna declined from 62,000 to 47,000 units in the time span of 7-8 months. Initially, during the winter and the early spring, although the plague epidemic had been known after that it involved many cities close to Bologna (i.e. Turin, Milan, Venice, Genoa and Verona), the population tried to keep the epidemic hidden, being afraid that commerce exchanges could be affected by this event. Later, starting from the month of May, under the guidance of cardinal Bernardino Spada, cooperating with the numerous religious orders and in particular with the one of the Camillians, the city reacted, launching an organization effort which significantly aided in the containment of the plague epidemic. A number of Lazarettos were organized outside of the city walls and relevant sums supported the clean operation of over 3,000 houses. The city Senate sustained the poor population with a sum of 700,000 lire and grain donations. Even if the loss of human lives was high, it resulted not so dramatic, compared with that paid by other Italian cities. From a cultural point of view, according to the belief of the scientific knowledge of that time, the miasmatic theories were still considered satisfactory, although in the common practice the people who could leave the city escaped from Bologna, in order to avoid the contagion. We can argue that the impact of the epidemic was reduced by means of the organizational approach with strict isolation measures for sick persons, the closing of the city walls in the urban areas more affected by the plague, and finally a sanctionatory and punitive approach for individuals, who disregarded the applied rules.
Topics: Cities; Epidemics; History, 17th Century; Humans; Italy; Plague; Seasons
PubMed: 33664185
DOI: No ID Found -
Medical Anthropology 2022Colonial approaches to animal and zoonotic diseases are often scrutinized in terms of their recognition or dismissal of indigenous knowledge. In this article I examine...
Colonial approaches to animal and zoonotic diseases are often scrutinized in terms of their recognition or dismissal of indigenous knowledge. In this article I examine British colonial approaches to "Mahamari plague" in mid-nineteenth century Kumaon and Garhwal, in the Indian Himalayas. Discussing two key colonial medical expeditions in the region, I argue that the eventual recognition of the validity of Kumaoni and Garhwali knowledge of Mahamari and its relation to rats intensified intrusive colonial intervention on indigenous lifeways. I examine this neglected impact of the colonial recognition of indigenous knowledge and urge for approaches that place more emphasis on the practical impact of colonial epistemologies.
Topics: Animals; Anthropology, Medical; Colonialism; History, 20th Century; Humans; India; Medicine; Plague; Rats
PubMed: 35579543
DOI: 10.1080/01459740.2022.2058397 -
Epidemiology and Health 2016Plague remains a public health concern worldwide, particularly in old foci. Multiple epidemics of this disease have been recorded throughout the history of Iran. Despite... (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVES
Plague remains a public health concern worldwide, particularly in old foci. Multiple epidemics of this disease have been recorded throughout the history of Iran. Despite the long-standing history of human plague in Iran, it remains difficult to obtain an accurate overview of the history and current status of plague in Iran.
METHODS
In this review, available data and reports on cases and outbreaks of human plague in the past and present in Iran and in neighboring countries were collected, and information was compiled regarding when, where, and how many cases occurred.
RESULTS
This paper considers the history of plague in Persia (the predecessor of today's Iran) and has a brief review of plague in countries in the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region, including a range of countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
CONCLUSIONS
Since Iran has experienced outbreaks of plague for several centuries, neighboring countries have reported the disease in recent years, the disease can be silent for decades, and the circulation of has been reported among rodents and dogs in western Iran, more attention should be paid to disease monitoring in areas with previously reported human cases and in high-risk regions with previous epizootic and enzootic activity.
Topics: Animals; Disease Outbreaks; Dog Diseases; Dogs; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Humans; Iran; Mediterranean Region; Persia; Plague; Rodentia
PubMed: 27457063
DOI: 10.4178/epih.e2016033 -
Biomolecules Dec 2020Despite the relatively low incidence of plague, its etiological agent, , is an exceptional epidemic danger due to the high infectivity and mortality of this infectious... (Review)
Review
Despite the relatively low incidence of plague, its etiological agent, , is an exceptional epidemic danger due to the high infectivity and mortality of this infectious disease. Reports on the isolation of drug-resistant strains indicate the advisability of using asymmetric responses, such as phage therapy and vaccine prophylaxis in the fight against this problem. The current relatively effective live plague vaccine is not approved for use in most countries because of its ability to cause heavy local and system reactions and even a generalized infectious process in people with a repressed immune status or metabolic disorders, as well as lethal infection in some species of nonhuman primates. Therefore, developing alternative vaccines is of high priority and importance. However, until now, work on the development of plague vaccines has mainly focused on screening for the potential immunogens. Several investigators have identified the protective potency of bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) as a promising basis for bacterial vaccine candidates. This review is aimed at presenting these candidates of plague vaccine and the results of their analysis in animal models.
Topics: Animals; Antigens, Bacterial; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; Bacterial Proteins; Humans; Immune System; Immunoglobulin G; Mice; Plague; Plague Vaccine; Vaccines; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 33353123
DOI: 10.3390/biom10121694 -
Scientific Reports Oct 2017Numerous historical works have mentioned that trade routes were to blame for the spread of plague in European history, yet this relationship has never been tested by...
Numerous historical works have mentioned that trade routes were to blame for the spread of plague in European history, yet this relationship has never been tested by quantitative evidence. Here, we resolve the hypothetical role of trade routes through statistical analysis on the geo-referenced major trade routes in the early modern period and the 6,656 geo-referenced plague outbreak records in AD1347-1760. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimation results show that major trade routes played a dominant role in spreading plague in pre-industrial Europe. Furthermore, the negative correlation between plague outbreaks and their distance from major trade ports indicates the absence of a permanent plague focus in the inland areas of Europe. Major trade routes decided the major plague outbreak hotspots, while navigable rivers determined the geographic pattern of sporadic plague cases. A case study in Germany indicates that plague penetrated further into Europe through the local trade route network. Based on our findings, we propose the mechanism of plague transmission in historical Europe, which is imperative in demonstrating how pandemics were spread in recent human history.
Topics: Commerce; Disease Outbreaks; Europe; Geography; Humans; Industry; Plague
PubMed: 29021541
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13481-2 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2018Plague and tularemia are zoonoses and their causative bacteria are circulating in certain regions of Iran. This study was conducted to investigate potential disease...
Plague and tularemia are zoonoses and their causative bacteria are circulating in certain regions of Iran. This study was conducted to investigate potential disease reservoirs amongst small wildlife species in different regions of Iran. Rodents, insectivores and hares from 17 different provinces of the country were collected in 2014 and 2015. Samples were taken from the spleens of the animals and Real-time PCR was applied to detect nucleic acid sequences that are specific to and , respectively. Among 140 collected rodents, 25 distinct species were identified out of which five were the most common: (21% out of 140 rodents), (12%), (11%), (11%) and (10%). Seventeen insectivores were collected and identified as (82%) and (18%). Fifty-one hares were collected and identified as (57%), (14%) and sp. (29%). Three out of 140 explored rodents (1.91%) were positive for , an , a , and a collected from Golestan, Khuzestan and Razavi Khorasan provinces, respectively. Two hares (3.92%) were -positive, a from Khuzestan and a sp. from the Sistan and Baluchistan province. None of the tested animals were positive for . This is the first report of direct detection of in mammals of Iran and the first-time observation of the agent in a snow vole, worldwide. The results indicate that tularemia is more widespread in Iran than previously reported including the Northeast and Southwestern parts of the country. Future studies should address genetic characterization of positive DNA samples from Iran to achieve molecular subtyping and rule out assay cross-reactivity with near neighbor species.
Topics: Animals; Eulipotyphla; Francisella tularensis; Hares; Iran; Plague; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Rodentia; Spleen; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tularemia; Yersinia pestis; Zoonoses
PubMed: 30042927
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2018.00215 -
The New England Journal of Medicine Mar 2015The agents most likely to be used in bioterrorism attacks are reviewed, along with the clinical syndromes they produce and their treatment. (Review)
Review
The agents most likely to be used in bioterrorism attacks are reviewed, along with the clinical syndromes they produce and their treatment.
Topics: Anthrax; Bacterial Infections; Bioterrorism; Botulism; Diagnosis, Differential; Humans; Plague; Smallpox; Tularemia; United States
PubMed: 25738671
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1409755 -
BMC Infectious Diseases Mar 2018A high incidence and mortality of plague in the past two decades occurred in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. High dose streptomycin (6-8 g/d) remained the first...
BACKGROUND
A high incidence and mortality of plague in the past two decades occurred in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. High dose streptomycin (6-8 g/d) remained the first practical strategy for controlling the progressive, vicious clinical circumstances for patients with pneumonic plague in the Plateau, as opposed to the routine dosage recommended by the World Health Organization. To investigate whether patients with pneumonic plague truly required a large dosage of streptomycin in the hypoxic environment of the Tibetan Plateau, we investigated the hypothesis that hypoxic environment would change the pharmacokinetics of streptomycin in vivo.
METHODS
(1) We retrospectively analyzed the data of pneumonic plague patients administered streptomycin from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2012 in these areas, which came from the database of the Qinghai Center for Disease Control; and (2) We used a persistent hypoxia chamber to simulate the plateau hypoxic environment and fed Sprague Dawley rats in the chambers for one month. Then, we continuously administered hypoxic rats a single loading dose (200 mg/kg) of streptomycin and analyzed its concentrations by high performance liquid chromatography. The pharmacokinetic profiles were analyzed using a non-compartmental method in the Phoenix WinNonlin program.
RESULTS
(1) There were 32 cases of patients with pneumonic plague in the past two decades totally and 9 of them died (all-cause mortality 28.125%, 9/32), including 7 cases died of delayed diagnosis without treatment of streptomycin, and the only 2 patients received normal dose of streptomycin. (2) The pharmacokinetic behaviors of streptomycin were different between the hypoxic and normal rats. Administration in a hypoxic state resulted in 74.81% and 29.28% decreases in maximum plasma concentration and area under the concentration-time curve from time zero to infinity compared with those values under normal condition for streptomycin.
CONCLUSIONS
These results indicated that hypoxic condition could significantly decrease the absorption rate and extent of streptomycin. Therefore, patients with pneumonic plague require higher doses of streptomycin to maintain effective drug concentrations in Qing Hai and the Tibetan Plateau.
Topics: Altitude; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Humans; Hypoxia; Male; Plague; Pneumonia, Bacterial; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Retrospective Studies; Streptomycin; Tibet
PubMed: 29523093
DOI: 10.1186/s12879-018-3027-7 -
Scientific Reports Jan 2017The plague agent Yersinia pestis persists for years in the soil. Two millennia after swiping over Europe and North Africa, plague established permanent foci in North...
The plague agent Yersinia pestis persists for years in the soil. Two millennia after swiping over Europe and North Africa, plague established permanent foci in North Africa but not in neighboring Europe. Mapping human plague foci reported in North Africa for 70 years indicated a significant location at <3 kilometers from the Mediterranean seashore or the edge of salted lakes named chotts. In Algeria, culturing 352 environmental specimens naturally containing 0.5 to 70 g/L NaCl yielded one Y. pestis Orientalis biotype isolate in a 40 g/L NaCl chott soil specimen. Core genome SNP analysis placed this isolate within the Y. pestis branch 1, Orientalis biovar. Culturing Y. pestis in broth steadily enriched in NaCl indicated survival up to 150 g/L NaCl as L-form variants exhibiting a distinctive matrix assisted laser desorption-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry peptide profile. Further transcriptomic analyses found the upregulation of several outer-membrane proteins including TolC efflux pump and OmpF porin implied in osmotic pressure regulation. Salt tolerance of Y. pestis L-form may play a role in the maintenance of natural plague foci in North Africa and beyond, as these geographical correlations could be extended to 31 plague foci in the northern hemisphere (from 15°N to 50°N).
Topics: Africa, Northern; Drug Tolerance; Gene Expression Profiling; Humans; Membrane Transport Proteins; Microbial Viability; Plague; Proteome; Sodium Chloride; Soil Microbiology; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; Topography, Medical; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 28054667
DOI: 10.1038/srep40022