Chapter 16.7 : Plague—Yersinia pestis

Abstract:

Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of plague, an acute febrile infectious disease with a high fatality rate ( 16 ). Plague may present in three forms: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic ( 13 ). Bubonic plague is characterized by sepsis that is accompanied by the sudden onset of fever, chills, weakness, headache, and the formation of buboes and swelling of regional lymph nodes of the groin, axilla, or neck. Septicemic plague is basically the same as bubonic plague but without the swelling of the lymph nodes. Pneumonic plague, the most deadly form of the disease and the form that can spread rapidly among susceptible individuals, presents as fever and lymphadenopathy with cough, chest pain, and often hemoptysis. Secondary pneumonia from hematogenous spread of the organisms can occur, or the organism can occasionally be passed by aerosols from human to human as primary pneumonic plague.