Abstract
Plague, also known as Black Death, is a natural focal disease caused by Yersinia pestis. It prevails in wild rodents, with rats as its important source of infection. Its pathogen is commonly carried by rat fleas to infect humans, which causes bubonic plague after its invasion of human skin and pneumonic plague after its invasion via the respiratory tract. Plague, one of the most serious infectious diseases threatening human life, has strong infectivity and a high mortality rate. In the Prevention and Control Act of Infectious Diseases in China, it has been listed as the first infectious disease in class A. Three pandemics of plague occurred, with the first event occurring in the sixth century which spread from Mediterranean into Europe and nearly 100 million deaths reported. The second pandemic occurred in the fourteenth century, with the disease prevailing in Europe, Asia, and African. The third pandemic occurred in the eighteenth century, with the disease prevailing in 32 countries. The pandemic in the fourteenth century involved China. Yersinia pestis can be manufactured into bioterrorism weapon to threaten the world peace. Therefore, the prevention and control of plague is very important.
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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and People's Medical Publishing House
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Li, R., Li, H.J., Wu, D. (2015). Plague. In: Li, H. (eds) Radiology of Infectious Diseases: Volume 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9876-1_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9876-1_19
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