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Article: plague
- Article from:
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
CopyrightThe Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information)
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plague any contagious, malignant, epidemic disease, in particular the bubonic plague and the black plague (or Black Death), both forms of the same infection. These acute febrile diseases are caused by
Yersinia pestis
(
Pasteurella pestis
), discovered independently by Shibasaburo Kitasato and Alexandre Yersin in 1894, a bacterium that is transmitted to people by fleas from rats, in which epidemic waves of infection always precede great epidemics in human populations. Sylvatic plague, still another form, is carried by other rodents, e.g., squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, in rural or wooded areas where they are prevalent.
Bubonic plague, the most common form, is characterized by very ...