Plague (disease)

This article is about the disease caused by Yersinia pestis. For other uses, see Plague (disambiguation).
Plague
Classification and external resources
Yersinia pestis seen at 200× magnification with a fluorescent label. This bacterium, carried and spread by fleas, is the cause of the various forms of the disease plague.
ICD-10
A20.
ICD-9
020
DiseasesDB
14226
MedlinePlus
000596
eMedicine
med/3381
MeSH
D010930
Plague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis (Pasteurella pestis). Primarily carried by rodents (most notably rats) and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death and devastation it brought. Plague is still endemic in some parts of the world.
Contents[hide]
1 Name
2 Infection and transmission
3 Pathology
3.1 Bubonic plague
3.2 Septicemic plague
3.3 Pneumonic plague
3.4 Other forms
4 Treatments
5 History
5.1 First Pandemic: Plague of Justinian
5.2 Second Pandemic: Black Death
5.2.1 Nature of the disease
5.3 Third Pandemic
6 Plague as a biological weapon
7 1994 epidemic in Surat, India
8 Other contemporary cases
9 Literary and popular culture references
10 References
10.1 Notes
10.2 Bibliography
11 External links