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Plague
Disease definition
Plague is a severe bacterial infection caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis.
ORPHA:707
Classification level: Disorder- Synonym(s):
- Yersiniosis
- Prevalence: Unknown
- Inheritance: -
- Age of onset: All ages
- ICD-10: A20.0 A20.1 A20.2 A20.3 A20.7 A20.8 A20.9
- ICD-11: 1B93
- OMIM: -
- UMLS: C0032064
- MeSH: D010930
- GARD: -
- MedDRA: 10035148
Summary
Epidemiology
It is extremely rare in Europe but still spreads in Africa and, to a lesser degree, in Asia and Latin America.
Clinical description
There are two clinical forms of the disease: bubonic plague, characterized by painfully inflamed lymph nodes called "buboes'', an elevated temperature and an altered clinical state; and pulmonary plague which manifests itself as thoracic pain, a cough with bloody expectoration, an elevated temperature, an altered clinical state and consciousness disorders.
Etiology
Plague is transmitted from animals to humans by fleas. Rodents are the reservoir for the disease. Plague is also transmitted between humans via the respiratory route.
Diagnostic methods
Diagnosis is based on isolation of the bacterium in the bubo, blood or expectoration, or from serology.
Management and treatment
Many classes of antibiotics are effective against Yersinia pestis (aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, cotrimoxazole, rifampicin, fluoroquinolones etc.).
Prognosis
Without treatment, the course of the disease is rapidly fatal.
A summary on this disease is available in Deutsch (2009) Español (2009) Français (2009) Italiano (2009) Nederlands (2009) Português (2009)
Additional information