Yersinia pestis
Yersinia pestis is a bacillus. It is a bacterium.[1] It has been identified as the infectious agent of bubonic plague. This bacterium also causes other forms of plague- Septicemic plague and pneumonic plague.[2] These three forms of the plague have been responsible for a high death toll in many epidemics throughout human history. These diseases are believed to be the cause of the Black Death. Because of the Black Death, about one third (one of three) people in Europe died. This was between 1347 and 1353.
| Yersinia pestis | |
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| Scientific classification | |
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| Class: | Gamma Proteobacteria
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| Species: | Y. pestis
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| Binomial name | |
| Yersinia pestis (Lehmann & Neumann, 1896)
van Loghem 1944 | |
The bacillus was discovered by the physician Alexandre Yersin during an epidemic of the plague in Hong Kong, in 1894.[3] Yersin worked for the Pasteur Institute at the time. Originally, the microoganism was named Pasteurella pestis. It was renamed in 1967.
Currently, three varieties of Y. pestis are known.
Historians are currently divided about the role of Y. pestis in the Black Death. Some historians said that the Black Death spread far too fast. Therefore, Y. pestis could not have caused it. DNA from Y. pestis has been found in the teeth of some of the victims of the Black Death.[4][5] For this reason, Y. pestis must have been at least a factor in some (but not necessarily all) European plague epidemics.
Yersinia Pestis Media
Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) infected with the Y. pestis bacterium, which appears as a dark mass in the gut: The foregut (proventriculus) of this flea is blocked by a Y. pestis biofilm; when the flea attempts to feed on an uninfected host, Y. pestis is regurgitated into the wound, causing infection.
Y. pestis isolated by Ricardo Jorge during the 1899 Porto plague outbreak
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References
These references are probably not in Simple English.
- ↑ Collins FM (1996). Pasteurella, Yersinia, and Francisella. In: Baron's Medical Microbiology (Baron S et al., eds.) (4th ed.). Univ of Texas Medical Branch. ISBN 0-9631172-1-1.
- ↑ Sherris medical microbiology : an introduction to infectious diseases (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. 2004. ISBN 0-8385-8529-9. OCLC 52358530.
- ↑ Bockemühl J (1994). "[100 years after the discovery of the plague-causing agent--importance and veneration of Alexandre Yersin in Vietnam today]". Immun Infekt. 22 (2): 72–5. PMID 7959865.
- ↑ Drancourt, Michel; Aboudharam, Gérard; Signoli, Michel; Dutour, Olivier; Raoult, Didier (1998-10-13). "Detection of 400-year-old Yersinia pestis DNA in human dental pulp: An approach to the diagnosis of ancient septicemia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 95 (21): 12637–12640. doi:10.1073/pnas.95.21.12637. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 22883. PMID 9770538.
- ↑ Drancourt, Michel; Raoult, Didier (January 2002). "Molecular insights into the history of plague". Microbes and Infection. 4 (1): 105–109. doi:10.1016/S1286-4579(01)01515-5. PMID 11825781.
Other websites
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Wikispecies has information on: Yersinia pestis. |
- Yersinia pestis Archived 2006-06-29 at the Wayback Machine. Virtual Museum of Bacteria.
- Genome information is available from the NIAID PathoSystems Resource Integration Center (PATRIC) Archived 2014-12-31 at the Wayback Machine