02735nas a2200289   4500008004100000022002500041245005800066210005200124260001300176300001400189490000700203520188100210653001702091653000902108653002102117653001102138653002002149100002002169700001602189700001502205700001802220700001702238700001902255700001902274700002202293856013002315       2020                        eng d  a0893-8512, 1098-661800a<i>Yersinia pestis</i>: the Natural History of Plague0 aiYersinia pestisi the Natural History of Plague  cDec-2020  ae00044-190 v343 a<p><jats p=""> 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. pestis-contaminated soils, burrowing and nonburrowing mammals exhibiting variable degrees of plague susceptibility, and their associated fleas. 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. Plague is acknowledged to have infected human populations for at least 5,000 years in Eurasia. Y. pestis genomes recovered from affected archaeological sites have suggested clonal evolution from a common ancestor shared with the closely related enteric pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and have indicated that ymt gene acquisition during the Bronze Age conferred Y. pestis with ectoparasite transmissibility while maintaining its enteric transmissibility. Three historic pandemics, starting in 541 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.</jats></p>
10aepidemiology10alice10apaleomicrobiolog10aplague10aYersinia pestis1 aBarbieri, Rémi1 aSignoli, M.1 aChevé, D.1 aCostedoat, C.1 aTzortzis, S.1 aAboudharam, G.1 aRaoult, Didier1 aDrancourt, Michel  uhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/CMR.00044-19?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed