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MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly... Sep 2006Plague is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. In 2006, a total of 13 human plague cases have been reported among residents of four states: New...
Plague is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. In 2006, a total of 13 human plague cases have been reported among residents of four states: New Mexico (seven cases), Colorado (three cases), California (two cases), and Texas (one case). This is the largest number of cases reported in a single year in the United States since 1994. Dates of illness onset ranged from February 16 to August 14; two (15%) cases were fatal. The median age of patients was 43 years (range: 13-79 years); eight (62%) patients were female. Five (38%) patients had primary septicemic plague, and the remaining eight (62%) had bubonic plague. Two (15%) patients developed secondary plague pneumonia, leading to administration of antibiotic prophylaxis to their health-care providers. This report summarizes six of the 13 cases, highlighting the severity and diverse clinical presentations of plague and underscoring the need for prompt diagnosis and treatment when plague is suspected.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; California; Colorado; Humans; Middle Aged; New Mexico; Plague; Texas
PubMed: 16943764
DOI: No ID Found -
Emerging Infectious Diseases Sep 2017Plague is a highly virulent fleaborne zoonosis that occurs throughout many parts of the world; most suspected human cases are reported from resource-poor settings in...
Plague is a highly virulent fleaborne zoonosis that occurs throughout many parts of the world; most suspected human cases are reported from resource-poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa. During 2008-2016, a combination of active surveillance and laboratory testing in the plague-endemic West Nile region of Uganda yielded 255 suspected human plague cases; approximately one third were laboratory confirmed by bacterial culture or serology. Although the mortality rate was 7% among suspected cases, it was 26% among persons with laboratory-confirmed plague. Reports of an unusual number of dead rats in a patient's village around the time of illness onset was significantly associated with laboratory confirmation of plague. This descriptive summary of human plague in Uganda highlights the episodic nature of the disease, as well as the potential that, even in endemic areas, illnesses of other etiologies might be being mistaken for plague.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Animals; Animals, Wild; Child; Child, Preschool; Disease Outbreaks; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged; Plague; Rats; Uganda; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 28820134
DOI: 10.3201/eid2309.170789 -
Scientific Reports Dec 2018In historical times, plague epidemics intermittently ravaged Europe for more than 1,400 years, and still represent a threat in many countries all over the world. A... (Review)
Review
In historical times, plague epidemics intermittently ravaged Europe for more than 1,400 years, and still represent a threat in many countries all over the world. A debate is ongoing about the past plague, if it killed randomly in a population or discriminated among persons on the basis of their biological features. To address questions of plague lethality, we reviewed a large number of anthropological studies published in the last twenty years on victims of the past pestilences in Europe. In particular, we focused on data concerning demography (age at death and sex determination), and health status (skeletal biomarkers). We applied to these data a model system based on Multiple Linear Regression, which aimed to discern among possible predictors of sex-selective plague lethality in entire populations, in different periods and regions. Based on available data, we lack evidence for general trends of association between biological features. Differences in sex ratio are more likely due to the original population compositions or to distinct cultural behaviours of the two genders. We concluded that generalizations on biological evidence are not feasible for ancient plagues if we exclude that the infection possibly killed primarily persons between 5-10 and 20-35 years of age.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Anthropology, Medical; Child; Child, Preschool; Disease Outbreaks; Europe; Female; History, 15th Century; History, 16th Century; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; History, Medieval; Humans; Infant; Male; Middle Aged; Plague; Sex Factors; Skeleton; Young Adult
PubMed: 30518882
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-36201-w -
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases May 2022The Hemagglutination assay (HA) is widely used in plague diagnosis, however, it has a subjective interpretation and demands high amounts of antigen and other...
BACKGROUND
The Hemagglutination assay (HA) is widely used in plague diagnosis, however, it has a subjective interpretation and demands high amounts of antigen and other immunobiological supplies. On the other hand, the conventional Anti-IgG ELISA is limited by the need of specific conjugates for multiple plague hosts, which leaves a gap for new diagnostic methods able to cover both the diagnosis of human cases and the epidemiological surveillance of multiple sentinel species.
METHODS
We developed an ELISA Protein A-peroxidase method to detect anti-F1 antibodies across several species, including humans. To determine the cut-off and performance rates, HA results from 288 samples (81 rabbits, 64 humans, 66 rodents and 77 dogs) were used as reference. Next, we evaluated the agreement between Protein A-ELISA and Anti-IgG ELISA in an expanded sample set (n = 487).
RESULTS
Optimal conditions were found with 250ng/well of F1 and 1:500 serum dilution. Protein A-ELISA showed high repeatability and reproducibility. We observed good correlation rates between the Protein A and IgG ELISAs optical densities and a higher positive/negative OD ratio for the Protein A-ELISA method. The overall sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve for Protein A-ELISA were 94%, 99% and 0.99, respectively. Similar results were observed for each species separately. In the analysis of the expanded sample set, there was a strong agreement between Protein A and IgG assays (kappa = 0.97). Furthermore, there was no cross-reaction with other common infectious diseases, such as dengue, Zika, Chagas disease, tuberculosis (humans) and ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis and leishmaniasis (dogs).
CONCLUSIONS
Altogether, the Protein A-ELISA showed high performance when compared both to HA and Anti-IgG ELISA, with a polyvalent single protocol that requires reduced amounts of antigen and can be employed to any plague hosts.
Topics: Animals; Dogs; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Humans; Immunoglobulin G; Plague; Rabbits; Reproducibility of Results; Rodentia; Sensitivity and Specificity; Staphylococcal Protein A; Zika Virus; Zika Virus Infection
PubMed: 35551520
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009805 -
Emerging Infectious Diseases Oct 2020
Topics: Disease Outbreaks; Humans; Plague; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 32946734
DOI: 10.3201/eid2610.191270 -
The National Medical Journal of India 1995
Topics: Disease Outbreaks; Humans; India; Plague
PubMed: 8520459
DOI: No ID Found -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Mar 2012In debates on societal collapse, Iceland occupies a position of precarious survival, defined by not becoming extinct, like Norse Greenland, but having endured, sometimes...
In debates on societal collapse, Iceland occupies a position of precarious survival, defined by not becoming extinct, like Norse Greenland, but having endured, sometimes by the narrowest of margins. Classic decline narratives for late medieval to early modern Iceland stress compounding adversities, where climate, trade, political domination, unsustainable practices, and environmental degradation conspire with epidemics and volcanism to depress the Icelanders and turn the once-proud Vikings and Saga writers into one of Europe's poorest nations. A mainstay of this narrative is the impact of incidental setbacks such as plague and volcanism, which are seen to have compounded and exacerbated underlying structural problems. This research shows that this view is not correct. We present a study of landscape change that uses 15 precisely dated tephra layers spanning the whole 1,200-y period of human settlement in Iceland. These tephras have provided 2,625 horizons of known age within 200 stratigraphic sections to form a high-resolution spatial and temporal record of change. This finding shows short-term (50 y) declines in geomorphological activity after two major plagues in A.D. 15th century, variations that probably mirrored variations in the population. In the longer term, the geomorphological impact of climate changes from the 14th century on is delayed, and landscapes (as well as Icelandic society) exhibit resilience over decade to century timescales. This finding is not a simple consequence of depopulation but a reflection of how Icelandic society responded with a scaling back of their economy, conservation of core functionality, and entrenchment of the established order.
Topics: Animals; Climate; Climate Change; Environment; Epidemics; Geography; Geologic Sediments; History, Ancient; History, Medieval; Humans; Iceland; Livestock; Plague; Soil; Time Factors
PubMed: 22371601
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1113937109 -
Bulletin of the World Health... 1980Plague in man occurred from 1968 to 1970 in mountain villages of the Boyolali Regency in Central Java. Infected fleas, infected rats, and seropositive rats were...
Plague in man occurred from 1968 to 1970 in mountain villages of the Boyolali Regency in Central Java. Infected fleas, infected rats, and seropositive rats were collected in villages with human plague cases. Subsequent isolations of Yersinia pestis and seropositive rodents, detected during investigations of rodent plague undertaken by the Government of Indonesia and the WHO, attested to the persistence of plague in the region from 1972 to 1974.Since 1968, the incidence of both rodent and human plague has been greatest from December to May at elevations over 1000 m. Isolations of Y. pestis were obtained from the fleas Xenopsylla cheopis and Stivalius cognatus and the rats Rattus rattus diardii and R. exulans ephippium. The major risk to man has been fleas infected with Y. pestis of unique electrophoretic phenotype. Infected fleas were collected most often in houses.Introduced in 1920, rodent plague had persisted in the Boyolali Regency for at least 54 years. The recent data support specific requirements for continued plague surveillance.
Topics: Animals; Disease Reservoirs; Humans; Indonesia; Plague; Rats; Siphonaptera; Yersinia pestis
PubMed: 6968252
DOI: No ID Found -
Indian Journal of Public Health 1994
Topics: Disease Outbreaks; Humans; India; Plague
PubMed: 7797309
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of the American Veterinary... Feb 2003
Review
Topics: Animals; Animals, Domestic; Animals, Wild; Bioterrorism; Humans; Plague; Public Health; Seasons; United States; Yersinia pestis; Zoonoses
PubMed: 12597416
DOI: 10.2460/javma.2003.222.444