Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Address correspondence to M. Drancourt, michel. Yersinia pestis : the natural history of plague. Clin Microbiol Rev e All Rights Reserved. The Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis is responsible for deadly plague, a zoonotic disease established in stable foci in the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia.
Its persistence in the environment relies on the subtle balance between Y. Transmission from one host to another relies mainly on infected flea bites, inducing typical painful, enlarged lymph nodes referred to as buboes, followed by septicemic dissemination of the pathogen. In contrast, droplet inhalation after close contact with infected mammals induces primary pneumonic plague.
Finally, the rarely reported consumption of contaminated raw meat causes pharyngeal and gastrointestinal plague. Point-of-care diagnosis, early antibiotic treatment, and confinement measures contribute to outbreak control despite residual mortality. Mandatory primary prevention relies on the active surveillance of established plague foci and ectoparasite control.
Three historic pandemics, starting in AD and continuing until today, have been described. At present, the third pandemic has become largely quiescent, with hundreds of human cases being reported mainly in a few impoverished African countries, where zoonotic plague is mostly transmitted to people by rodent-associated flea bites.
Plague, caused by the bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis , has been recognized by doctors and populations as a unique nosological entity for centuries because it is the sole disease characterized by swollen lymph nodes referred to as buboes to cause deadly epidemics. Historical sources in Europe have led to the delineation of three plague pandemics.
