PLAGUE

YERSINIA PESTIS
ZOONOSIS
PARASITE OF RODENTS
BLCK DEATH
PANDEMIC
13th - century
DESCRIPTION
 SHORT GRAM –NEGATIVE COCCBACILLI
 PLEOMORPHIC
 NON – SPORING , NON- MOTILE
 CAPSULATED
 BIPOLAR STAINING
 MEMBER OF Enterobacteriaceae
 NOT FASTIDIOUS
ANTIGENS
 TWO – antigenic complexes
 Somatic , heat- stable V , W
 RESIST PHAGOCYTOSIS

 Capsular heat – labile ( VACCIN )

 F 1 FRACTION
CLINICAL PICTURE
1. BUBONIC PLAGUE
• RATS MAN
• BITES OF INFECTED FLEAS
• Xenopsylla cheopis
• Lymph nodes painful swellings
(buoboes)
• Inguinal , axillary , cervical regions
• Delay treatment 50% mortality
2- PNEUMONIC PLAQUE
 Person Person through infected
droplets
 Epidemics
 Sever bronchopneumonia
 Bloody sputum
 Highly contagious
 Fatal
3- SEPTICAEMIC PLAQUE
 Primary infection or as complication of
other types
 Fatal outcome
DIAGNOSIS
 MICROSCOPY
 Bacilli in
 FLUID FROM BUOBOES
 SPUTUM
 BLOOD
 Methylene blue
 Bipolar staining
 Culture
 Animal inoculation
TREATMENT
 WHEN SUSPECTED
 ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY
 TETRACYCLINE
 WITHEN 48 h OF ONSET FOR 10 DAYS
EPIDEMIOLOGY
1 - SYLVATIC PLAQUE
 Outbreaks of plaque among rats by fleas
 Fleas transmit the infection to man
 Farmers or trappers are at risk
 Less serious
 Bacilli are sucked and multiply in the insect
midgut
 Sporadic disease
2 – URBAN PLAQUE
 More serious for man
 Spread of infection among rats (Rattus
rattus
 Spread to human habitation after epidemic
in rats
 Human pandemics
CONTROL
1. BUOBONIC P.
 Destroy rats and fleas
 Houses and buildings
 Ships fumigation
2. PNEUMONIC P
 Isolation
 Tetracyclines for contacts.
 VACCINATION
 People at risk
 Live vaccine – avirulent strain
 Inactivated virulent strain
 Short duration immunity