Showing papers on "Plague (disease) published in 2007"

Yersinia pestis Orientalis in remains of ancient plague patients.

Abstract: Yersinia pestis DNA was recently detected in human remains from 2 ancient plague pandemics in France and Germany. We have now sequenced Y. pestis glpD gene in such remains, showing a 93-bp deletion specific for biotype Orientalis. These data show that only Orientalis type caused the 3 plague pandemics.

The Black Death and the Burning of Jews

Abstract: Over the past forty years, studies of the period from the First Crusade at the end of the eleventh century to the rise of the mendicant orders in the early thirteenth century have dominated research into anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages. Curiously, far less attention has been devoted to the most monumental of medieval Jewish persecutions, one that eradicated almost entirely the principal Jewish communities of Europe — those of the Rhineland — along with many other areas. Coupled with mass migration that ensued, they caused a fundamental redistribution of Jewry. These persecutions were the burning of Jews between

Plague and the human flea, Tanzania.

Abstract: Domestic fleas were collected in 12 villages in the western Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. Of these, 7 are considered villages with high plague frequency, where human plague was recorded during at least 6 of the 17 plague seasons between 1986 and 2004. In the remaining 5 villages with low plague frequency, plague was either rare or unrecorded. Pulex irritans, known as the human flea, was the predominant flea species (72.4%) in houses. The density of P. irritans, but not of other domestic fleas, was significantly higher in villages with a higher plague frequency or incidence. Moreover, the P. irritans index was strongly positively correlated with plague frequency and with the logarithmically transformed plague incidence. These observations suggest that in Lushoto District human fleas may play a role in plague epidemiology. These findings are of immediate public health relevance because they provide an indicator that can be surveyed to assess the risk for plague.

Plague reappearance in Algeria after 50 years, 2003.

Abstract: An outbreak of plague occurred in the region of Oran, Algeria, from June to July 2003. Algeria had not reported this disease for >50 years. Eighteen bubonic cases were identified, and Yersinia pestis was isolated from 6 patients. Except for the index case-patient, all patients recovered. Targeted chemoprophylaxis, sanitation, and vector control played a crucial role in controlling the outbreak. Epidemiologic and biomolecular findings strongly suggested the existence of a local animal reservoir during this period, but its origin (resurgence or re-importation) could not be determined. This sudden and unexpected reemergence of plague, close to an important commercial seaport, is a textbook illustration of a public health event of international importance. It also demonstrates that the danger of plague reoccurrence is not limited to the currently indexed natural foci.

Initiation and spread of traveling waves of plague, yersinia pestis, in the western united states

Abstract: 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 on spatio-temporally unique plague cases to clarify the route and speed of the initial spread of plague eastward. Velocities of disease spread were then analyzed using multiple linear regression models to identify environmental features that significantly impacted the rate of spread. Between one and three introductions of plague along the Pacific coast were observed, after which plague traveled from 45 to 87 km/year. In all regression models, the coast ranges of California were associated with slower spread, and the Southern Rockies were associated with a significant increase in the rate of disease spread. Additional climatic and environmental factors affecting the velocity of plague's spread varied among the models. Maps were developed to graphically represent the traveling waves of plague over the United States landscape. These analyses identify important large-scale trends regarding the eastward invasion of plague into the continental United States that can be used to better understand the historical spread of plague, as well as how to manage threats from new or re-emerging diseases that might operate under similar spatio-temporal dynamics.

Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800-1940

Abstract: Introduction 1. 'Frowsy, Shameless Women': an overview of prostitution in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 2. 'Looking for my Living': women, community and prostitution in Ireland 3. 'Behaved very ill': rescue work and Magdalen asylums in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 4. 'The Black Plague': venereal disease in nineteenth century Ireland 5. 'Soldiers' Totty': nationalists, suffragists and the surveillance of women, 1900-1922 6. 'Hopeless cases': prostitution and sexual danger in the Irish Free State, 1922-1940 Conclusion.

Households and Plague in Early Modern Italy

Abstract: The remarkable Books of the Dead from early modern Milan and the parish and tax records of Nonantola during the plague of 1630 allow historians to reconstitute the patterns of family and household deaths caused by pestilence. Not only did deaths caused by this highly contagious disease cluster tightly within households; the intervals between household deaths were also extremely short. As much as one-quarter of all plague deaths were multiple household deaths that occurred on the same day. Similar to a deadly influenza, the speed and efficiency with which the late medieval and early modern plagues spread depended on unusually short periods of incubation and infectivity.

Human plague in the southwestern United States, 1957-2004: spatial models of elevated risk of human exposure to Yersinia pestis.

Abstract: Plague is a rare but highly virulent flea-borne zoonotic disease caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis Yersin. Identifying areas at high risk of human exposure to the etiological agent of plague could provide a useful tool for targeting limited public health resources and reduce the likelihood of misdiagnosis by raising awareness of the disease. We created logistic regression models to identify landscape features associated with areas where humans have acquired plague from 1957 to 2004 in the four-corners region of the United States (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah), and we extrapolated those models within a geographical information system to predict where plague cases are likely to occur within the southwestern United States disease focus. The probability of an area being classified as high-risk plague habitat increased with elevation up to approximately 2300 m and declined as elevation increased thereafter, and declined with distance from key habitat types (e.g., southern Rocky Mountain pinon--juniper [Pinus edulis Engelm. and Juniperus spp.], Colorado plateau pinon--juniper woodland, Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa P.& C. Lawson var. scopulorum), and southern Rocky Mountain juniper woodland and savanna). The overall accuracy of the model was >82%. Our most conservative model predicted that 14.4% of the four-corners region represented a high risk of peridomestic exposure to Y. pestis.

A spatial model of shared risk for plague and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the southwestern United States.

Abstract: Plague and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) are severe, often fatal diseases in humans that share a broad epidemiologic focus in the southwestern United States. Prevention of these diseases relies heavily on education and reducing rodent abundance in peridomestic environments. Resources for these activities are limited. Therefore, identifying areas sharing elevated risk for these two relatively rare but severe diseases could be useful for targeting limited public health resources. Using logistic regression and geographic information system-based modeling, we identified environmental predictors of elevated risk for plague (distance to pinon-juniper ecotones and amount of precipitation) and HPS (elevation and amount of precipitation) in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. Our models accurately identified case locations as suitable (producer accuracies of 93% for plague and 96% for HPS) and indicated that approximately half of the coverage area was classified as suitable risk for either plague or HPS. The probability of a site being classified as suitable for plague was strongly correlated with its probability of being classified as suitable for HPS (rhos = 0.88). Increased risk for both diseases occurred for approximately 37% of the coverage area.

A Plague of Plagues: The Problem of Plague Diagnosis in Medieval England

Abstract: Recent works by historians and biologists have called into doubt whether the great epidemic of 1348/49 in England was the plague. Examination of the biological evidence, however, shows their arguments to be faulty. The great epidemic of 1348/49 may have included other diseases, but it was clearly yersinia pestis.

Yersinia pestis CO92ΔyopH Is a Potent Live, Attenuated Plague Vaccine

Abstract: An in-frame deletion of the yopH gene in Yersinia pestis CO92 attenuates virulence in both bubonic and pneumonic plague models. When it is used as a live, attenuated vaccine, CO92ΔyopH provides a high degree of protection from parental and respiratory challenge with Y. pestis CO92.

Residence-linked human plague in New Mexico: a habitat-suitability model.

Abstract: Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, has been detected in fleas and mammals throughout the western United States. This highly virulent infection is rare in humans, surveillance of the disease is expensive, and it often was assumed that risk of exposure to Y. pestis is high in most of the western United States. For these reasons, some local health departments in these plague-affected regions have hesitated to undertake surveillance and other prevention activities. To aid in targeting limited public health resources, we created a fine-resolution human plague risk map for New Mexico, the state reporting more than half the human cases in the United States. Our GIS-based model included three landscape features—a nonlinear relationship with elevation, distance to water, and distance to the ecotone between Rocky Mountain/Great Basin open and closed coniferous woodlands—and yielded an overall accuracy of ≈ 80%. The model classified 17.25% of the state as posing significant risk of exposure to humans on privately or tribally owned land, which suggests that resource requirements for regular surveillance and control of plague could be effectively focused on < 20% of the state.

Plague metapopulation dynamics in a natural reservoir: the burrow system as the unit of study

Abstract: The ecology of plague (Yersinia pestis infection) in its ancient foci in Central Asia remains poorly understood. We present field data from two sites in Kazakhstan where the great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) is the major natural host. Family groups inhabit and defend burrow systems spaced throughout the landscape, such that the host population may be considered a metapopulation, with each occupied burrow system a subpopulation. We examine plague transmission within and between family groups and its effect on survival. Transmission of plague occurred disproportionately within family groups although not all gerbils became infected once plague entered a burrow system. There were no spatial patterns to suggest that family groups in close proximity to infected burrow systems were more at risk of infection than those far away. At one site, infection increased the chances of burrow-system extinction. Overall, it is useful to consider the burrow system as the unit of study within a much larger metapopulation.

The Antonine plague and the ‘third-century crisis’

Abstract: This chapter discusses two broad topics, the plague under Marcus Aurelius and the development of the Roman empire from the late second century onwards, and the relations between these two phenomena. The 'third century crisis' is in itself a debated topic, as is made abundantly clear in other contributions in this book Crises and the Roman Empire . To save time and space, the chapter simply takes it for granted that changes affected the Roman world from the reign of Marcus Aurelius onwards which in certain ways were detrimental to the stability of the Roman Empire. The chapter examines closely some of the evidence presented by Duncan-Jones and Scheidel for the serious effects of the plague in Italy, evidence that has not yet received the proper critical scrutiny. It illustrates how allegedly authoritative numbers used in the debate about the Antonine plague really originated. Keywords: Antonine plague; Italy; Marcus Aurelius; Roman empire; third century crisis

High prevalence of Yersinia pestis in black-tailed prairie dog colonies during an apparent enzootic phase of sylvatic plague

Abstract: Sylvatic plague (Yersinia pestis) was introduced into North America over 100 years ago. The disease causes high mortality and extirpations in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), which is of conservation concern because prairie dogs provide habitat for the critically endangered black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). Our goal was to help elucidate the mechanism Y. pestis uses to persist in prairie ecosystems during enzootic and epizootic phases. We used a nested PCR protocol to assay for plague genomes in fleas collected from prairie dog burrows potentially exposed to plague in 1999 and 2000. No active plague epizootic was apparent in the 55 prairie dog colonies sampled in 2002 and 2003. However, 63% of the colonies contained plague-positive burrows in 2002, and 57% contained plague-positive burrows in 2003. Within plague-positive colonies, 23% of sampled burrows contained plague-positive fleas in 2002, and 26% contained plague-positive fleas in 2003. Of 15 intensively sampled colonies, there was no relationship between change in colony area and percentage of plague-positive burrows over the two years of the study. Some seasonality in plague prevalence was apparent because the highest percentages of plague-positive colonies were recorded in May and June. The surprisingly high prevalence of plague on study area colonies without any obvious epizootic suggested that the pathogen existed in an enzootic state in black-tailed prairie dogs. These findings have important implications for the management of prairie dogs and other species that are purported to be enzootic reservoir species.

Cell-mediated defense against Yersinia pestis infection.

Abstract: Yersinia pestis (Yp) - one of the world's most deadly human pathogens - is the gram-negative bacterium that causes pneumonic plague. Virulent antibiotic-resistant Yp strains exist and Cold War scientists devised means to effectively aerosolize Yp. These facts raise grave concern that Yp will be exploited as a bioweapon. To counter that possibility, it is essential that we develop a safe and effective pneumonic plague vaccine. Recent studies suggest that the leading vaccine candidate, which primarily stimulates antibody-mediated humoral immunity, may not suffice. T cell-dependent cellular immunity comprises a second means by which vaccines prime long-lived protection against virulent bacterial pathogens. However, a plasmid carried by virulent Yp encodes factors that dampen inflammation and debilitate phagocytes, thereby compromising cellular defense mechanisms. As such, plague vaccine researchers have devoted relatively little attention to cellular immunity. Here we review our recent work demonstrating that the passive transfer of primed T cells can suffice to protect mice against lethal intranasal Yp infection, a model of pneumonic plague. We also demonstrate that key elements of cellular immunity even play critical roles during antibody-mediated defense against plague. We conclude that next-generation plague vaccines should strive to prime both cellular and humoral immunity.

Relationship between increase rate of human plague in China and global climate index as revealed by cross‐spectral and cross‐wavelet analyses

Abstract: Plague has caused the death of hundreds of millions of people throughout the human history. Today this disease is again re-emerging and hence is again becoming an increasing threat to human health in several parts of the world. However, impacts of global climate variation (e.g. El Nino and Southern Oscillation [ENSO]) and global warming on plagues are largely unknown. Using cross-spectral analysis and cross-wavelet analysis, we have analyzed the relationship between increase rate of human plague in China during 1871-2003 and the following climate factors (as measured by the Southern Oscillation Index [SOI], Sea Surface Temperature of east Pacific equator [SST] and air Temperature of the Northern Hemisphere [NHT]). We found in the frequency domain that increase rate of human plague was closely associated with SOI and SST. Cross-spectral analysis reveals that significant coherencies between increase rate of human plague and ENSO were found over short periods (2-3 years), medium periods (6-7 years) and long periods (11-12 years, 30-40 years). Cross-wavelet analysis reveals that increase rate of human plague oscillates in phase with SOI, but in anti-phase with SST over periods of 2-4 years and approximately 8 years (6-10 years). These results indicate that ENSO-driven climate variation may be important for occurrences of human plague in China. However, there is a need for a further analysis of the underlying mechanism between human plague in China and ENSO.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Rabies in Britain, 1830-2000

Abstract: Introduction Rabies Raging: 'The Era of Canine Madness', 1830 Rabies at Bay: 'The Dog Days', 1831-1861 Rabies Resurgent: 'The Dog Plague', 1864-1879 Rabies Cured: 'The Millennium of Pasteurism', 1880-1895 Rabies Banished: Muzzling and its Discontents, 1885-1902 Rabies Excluded: Quarantines to Pet Passports, 1902-2000 Conclusion

Colony Collapse Disorder in Canada: Do we have a problem?

Abstract: Colony Collapse Disorder (also known by several other names) has become a plague in throughout the United States. Major losses in colonies have been reported from all states that have reported (http://maarec.cas.psu.edu) as of 26 February, 2007. In Canada, where winter losses are commonly problematic, no instances of CCD have been confirmed, at least so far. But, very recent reports are of suspicious losses having been experienced in Ontario and Saskatchewan. Should Canadian beekeepers be concerned? Does Canadian beekeeping provide insights into CCD?

Genetic structure of black rat populations in a rural plague focus in Madagascar

Abstract: The genetic structure of reservoir populations is a key characteristic in understanding the persistence of infectious diseases in natural systems. In the Highlands of Madagascar, where plague has persisted since 1920, the black rat, Rattus rattus (L., 1758), is the sole species acting as a reservoir of the disease. Ecological surveys have shown a clear correlation between the locations of the plague-persistence area in Madagascar (above 800 m elevation) and the distribution area of one endemic plague vector, the flea Synopsyllus fonquerniei, which is found exclusively on rats living outdoors. This clear habitat segregation has led to the suggestion that R. rattus populations in the central highlands are divided into indoor- and outdoor-dwelling populations. Using eight microsatellite markers, we analysed the genetic structure of R. rattus populations living within a human plague focus in relation to habitat and geographic distance. We found that habitat by itself was not a structuring factor, unlike geogr...

Pattern and spatial distribution of plague in Lushoto, north-eastern Tanzania.

Abstract: A review of plague records from 1986 to 2002 and household interviews were carried out in the plague endemic villages to establish a pattern and spatial distribution of the disease in Lushoto district, Tanzania. Spatial data of households and village centres were collected and mapped using a hand held Global Positioning System and Geographical Information System. During the 16-year period, there were 6249 cases of plague of which 5302 (84.8%) were bubonic, 391 (6.3%) septicaemic, and 438 (7.0%) pneumonic forms. A total of 118 (1.9%) cases were not categorized. Females and individuals aged 7-18 years old were the most affected groups accounting for 54.4% (95% CI: 52.4-56.0) and 47.0% (95% CI: 45-49) of all reported cases, respectively. Most cases were found in villages at high altitudes (1700-1900m); and there was a decline in case fatality rate (CFR) in areas that experienced frequent outbreaks. Overall, there was a reduction in mean reporting time (from symptoms onset to admission) to an average of 1.35 days (95% CI: 1.30-1.40) over the years, although this remained high among adult patients (>18 years). Despite the decrease in the number of cases and CFR over the years, our findings indicate that Lushoto district experiences human plague epidemic every year; with areas at high altitudes being more prone to outbreaks. The continued presence of plague in this focus warrants further studies. Nonetheless, our findings provide a platform for development of an epidemic preparedness plan to contain future outbreaks.

Empirical assessment of a threshold model for sylvatic plague

Abstract: Plague surveillance programmes established in Kazakhstan, Central Asia, during the previous century, have generated large plague archives that have been used to parameterize an abundance threshold model for sylvatic plague in great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) populations. Here, we assess the model using additional data from the same archives. Throughout the focus, population levels above the threshold were a necessary condition for an epizootic to occur. However, there were large numbers of occasions when an epizootic was not observed even though great gerbils were, and had been, abundant. We examine six hypotheses that could explain the resulting false positive predictions, namely (i) including end-of-outbreak data erroneously lowers the estimated threshold, (ii) too few gerbils were tested, (iii) plague becomes locally extinct, (iv) the abundance of fleas was too low, (v) the climate was unfavourable, and (vi) a high proportion of gerbils were resistant. Of these, separate thresholds, fleas and climate received some support but accounted for few false positives and can be disregarded as serious omissions from the model. Small sample size and local extinction received strong support and can account for most of the false positives. Host resistance received no support here but should be subject to more direct experimental testing.

Ectoparasites of Chevrier's field mouse, Apodemus chevrieri, in a focus of plague in southwest China.

Abstract: Chevrier’s field mouse, Apodemus chevrieri Milne−Edwards (Rodentia: Muridae), has been identified as the main wild reservoir of plague in the sylvatic plague focus of Yunnan Province, southwest China. Here, the ectoparasite communities of A. chevrieri and the potential medical and veterinary importance of these ectoparasites are described. A high proportion (66%) of 321 mice were found to be infested with ectoparasites. A total of 81 species of ectoparasite, including 48 species of chigger mite, 25 species of mesostigmatid (gamasid) mite, six species of flea and two species of sucking louse were collected. Most species of ectoparasite were relatively uncommon, but a few were abundant. Within this ectoparasite complex, 16 species have previously been reported to be vectors of human disease agents. Apodemus chevrieri would appear therefore to be a natural reservoir for plague bacilli and epidemic haemorrhagic fever (Korean haemorrhagic fever) viruses.

Plague and Paradox: Militias in Iraq

Abstract: Politicians, political pundits, and others focus a lot of attention on the political militias in Iraq, usually blaming them for their destabilising effect on the country and insisting that they dis...

Treating medieval plague: the wonderful virtues of theriac.

Abstract: This paper examines one of the most popular remedies in medieval plague medicine, namely theriac, and explores possible reasons for its remarkable continuity in the late medieval and early modern medical tradition. Theriac, reputed as a universal antidote since ancient times, was a complex compound, composed of multiple ingredients, difficult to prepare, and subject to strict manufacturing and commercial controls. The paper centers on the therapeutic applications of theriac and on its relative pharmacologic efficacy in treating the symptoms of plague. The consistent use of theriac in plague medicine attests not only to the conservatism of medieval medical practice, but also to an underlying solidly founded rationale that combined humoral doctrine, empiric observation, and pharmacologic effect.

A Brief History of Miasmic Theory

Abstract: The Ancients: The Origin of the Theory The Encyclopedia of Public Health states that miasmic theory “dates at least from classical Greece in the fourth or fifth century B.C.E.” The Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460377 B.C.E.) believed bad air to be the cause of pestilence—or, more accurately, believed bad air was equivalent to pestilence. Vitruvius, in his Ten Books on Architecture, warns of the dangers of various kinds of bad air—exhalations from marshes, pestilential air, and unhealthy vapors—but does not use the term “miasma”. Greco-Roman physician Galen (c. 130-201 C.E.) expanded upon the theory of bad air, tracing individual susceptibility to the balance of humors in the body. This idea was influential during the Middle Ages as an explanation for contagion—why some contracted plague while others did not.