Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which, during the fourteenth century, caused the deaths of an estimated 75-200 million people in Europe. Plague epidemics still occur in Africa, Asia and South America. Madagascar is today one of the most endemic countries, reporting nearly one third of the human cases worldwide from 2004 to 2009. The persistence of plague...

The Gram negative bacterium Yersinia pestis can infect humans by multiple routes to cause plague. Three plague pandemics have occurred and Y. pestis has been linked to biowarfare in the past. The continued risk of plague as a bioweapon has prompted increased research to understand Y. pestis pathogenesis and develop new plague therapeutics. Several in vivo models have been developed for this res...

Currently, COVID-19 is perceived as an epidemic, a new «plague», referring to the matrix metaphor of pestis expressed in series contagion – death fear isolation. This article aims understand multiple collective challenges posed by plague epidemics. The analysis these may contribute reflection on several dimensions that shape pandemic threat. Individuals interpret different pasts aiming solve pr...

To the Editor: Plague has been one of the most devastating infectious diseases in human history. The etiologic agent, Yersinia pestis, primarily affects rodents and is usually transmitted to humans through infec-tive flea bites. Endemic plague foci result from circulation of the plague bacillus in its rodent reservoir, the source of human plague cases (1). Carnivores such as dogs and foxes, whi...

Yersinia pestis invaded the continental United States in 1900 and subsequently became established in wild rodent populations in several western states, traversing 2,250 km in approximately 40 years. However, the specific path of the eastward expansion of plague into the United States is poorly understood. We directly calculated velocities of disease spread and performed trend-surface analyses o...

Sylvatic plague (Yersinia pestis) is an exotic pathogen that is highly virulent in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and causes widespread colony losses and individual mortality rates>95%. We investigated colony spatial characteristics that may influence inter-colony transmission of plague at 3 prairie dog colony complexes in the Great Plains. The 4 spatial characteristics we con...

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...

Introduction: Rodents are the primary source of several zoonotic infectious diseases. The upsurge of rodents’ population in Najaf Abad Village of Nishapur County, northeastern Iran in February 2014 raised the concerns about the outbreak of diseases such as plague and tularemia. This report discusses the lessons learned from the outburst of rodents’ population in that village and rep...