189 Sentences With "pneumonic plague" | Random Sentence Generator

And again, it's pneumonic plague that's affecting Madagascar right now.

Pneumonic plague is nearly always fatal if not properly treated.

Pneumonic plague, which infects the lungs and causes serious coughing.

Thousands were killed by pneumonic plague, the most severe strand.

Pneumonic plague is the most contagious and severe form of plague, and it's the type that can spread from person to person or develop when bubonic plague spreads to the lungs, called secondary pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague is the most virulent and serious form of plague.

Plague that gets into your respiratory system is known as pneumonic plague.

Untreated pneumonic plague is always deadly, typically within 18983 hours of disease onset.

One posted earlier this year details how an organism contributed to pneumonic plague.

That paid off in November 85033 during an outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague.

That paid off in November 2017 during an outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague does not pass between people as easily as measles or the flu.

Two people in China were recently diagnosed with pneumonic plague, which is related to bubonic plague.

Pneumonic plague is "fatal if left untreated" with side effects like coughing up blood and vomiting.

Pneumonic plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria, usually found in small mammals and their fleas.

"It can move to the blood, causing septicemic plague, or the lungs, causing pneumonic plague," Hinnebusch says.

However, pneumonic plague is a little different and it is known for causing rapid pneumonia and death.

Two patients from Inner Mongolia were quarantined in Beijing suffering from pneumonic plague, authorities said last week.

After the bacterium Y. pestis infects its host, it can result in bubonic, septicemic, or pneumonic plague.

In addition, two thirds of the cases are of the pneumonic plague, the deadliest form of the disease.

Pneumonic plague is more virulent or damaging and is an advanced form characterized by a severe lung infection.

The pneumonic plague is the deadlier of the three types, which also include the bubonic and septicemic plagues.

Samples from patients in Seychelles suspected to be ill with pneumonic plague tested negative, the WHO reported Tuesday.

Pneumonic plague is highly contagious and transmissible between humans — it can be spread when an infected person coughs.

Pneumonic plague causes a rapid and severe form of pneumonia that can lead to respiratory failure and shock.

They've also seen an unexpected number of cases of pneumonic plague, which transmits more easily from person to person.

Of the 684 cases reported as of October 12, 474 were pneumonic plague, 156 bubonic and 1 septicemic plague.

If you think you're more of a pneumonic kinda gal, let someone with pneumonic plague cough in your mouth!

"It's spread from person to person through aerosolized droplets which are breathed in and cause primary pneumonic plague," says Hinnebusch.

Pneumonic plague is one of three types of infectious disease known as plague caused by the same bacterium, Yersinia pestis.

Still, it's a highly unusual epidemic right now in Madagascar, with so many pneumonic plague cases so early in the season.

This outbreak is unusually worrying because most new cases are in cities and are pneumonic plague, the form transmitted by coughing.

"A person with pneumonic plague is a public health nightmare," said Joe Hinnebusch, a plague researcher at the National Institutes of Health.

Untreated bubonic plague can turn into the more serious pneumonic plague, which causes rapidly developing pneumonia, after bacteria spread to the lungs.

Untreated pneumonic plague is always deadly; patients typically die within 25 hours of disease onset — unless they're lucky enough to get antibiotics.

Untreated bubonic plague can turn into the more serious pneumonic plague, which causes rapidly developing pneumonia after bacteria spread to the lungs.

Untreated pneumonic plague is always deadly; patients die typically within 24 hours of disease onset — unless they're lucky enough to get antibiotics.

Bubonic plague has a case-fatality ratio of 30% to 60%, while pneumonic plague, when left untreated, is always fatal, according to WHO.

That may be what happened in China in November, when two people from Inner Mongolia came down with the pneumonic plague, CNN reported.

Also unlike previous outbreaks, this year's involves mostly pneumonic plague, a more dangerous form of the disease than the much more common bubonic plague.

Story at a glance Two patients in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia have been diagnosed with pneumonic plague, according to state media Xinhua.

According to the ministry, a 34-year-old man who fell ill after returning from Madagascar on Friday has tested positive for pneumonic plague.

Of note: Pneumonic plague, which the Chinese patients have, is the only form of the plague that can be spread from person to person.

Two people in China were diagnosed with the pneumonic plague, sparking fears of an outbreak of the highly contagious and deadly disease among Chinese citizens.

But the pneumonic plague is "almost always fatal if not treated," the U.S. CDC says, and occurs when the plague bacteria gets into the lungs.

There are three main types of plague in humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague and septicemic plague.

While a live attenuated oral vaccine has shown some promise against pneumonic plague, it does not offer protection against bubonic plague, according to one 2015 study.

Patients diagnosed with pneumonic plague, which causes high fevers and shortness of breath, sometimes first contract the closely related and more well-known disease, bubonic plague.

The epidemic remains active in 12 districts, and among the total cases reported, 61% are said to be the pneumonic plague, according to the UN office.

Pneumonic plague infects the lungs, while septicemic plague infects the blood, and bubonic plague, the most common form, typically presents with painful and swollen lymph nodes.

Pneumonic plague may be less famous than the bubonic form, but it's even more deadly, and that's what the first two patients have come down with.

Pneumonic plague attacks the lungs and spreads from person to person through droplets from coughing, like a cold, while bubonic plague spreads only from fleas to humans.

They sought treatment on Tuesday in a hospital in Beijing's Chaoyang District, where they were diagnosed with pneumonic plague, according to the government office of the district.

The plague comes in three varieties: Pneumonic plague is an infection of the lungs; septicemic plague is a blood infection; and bubonic plague affects the lymphatic system.

Seychelles health authorities reported a probable case of pneumonic plague on Oct 10 in a 34-year-old man returning from a visit to Madagascar, the WHO said.

Nearly 70 percent of cases in Madagascar have been pneumonic plague, a form spread human-to-human that is more dangerous than bubonic plague and can trigger epidemics.

In late September, a man from the Seychelles, in Madagascar to take part in the Indian Ocean Club Championship basketball tournament, died in a hospital from pneumonic plague.

Chinese health officials say there is an "extremely low" chance that these two cases are the start of a larger outbreak of pneumonic plague, the Washington Post reports.

Last November, the country's Center for Disease Control alerted the public to an outbreak of pneumonic plague in the sparsely populated Inner Mongolia, after only two cases emerged.

Meanwhile, septicemic plague occurs when the plague-causing bacteria Yersinia pestis enters the bloodstream, and pneumonic plague (the rarest form) is contracted by inhaling the bacteria into the lungs.

Humans can be infected through flea bites, unprotected contact with bodily fluids or contaminated materials and the inhalation of droplets or small particles from a patient with pneumonic plague.

In both cases, the two patients from Inner Mongolia were quarantined at a facility in the capital after being diagnosed with pneumonic plague, health authorities said at the time.

The unusual spread of pneumonic plague in this outbreak was due to one infected person who traveled to find care early in the outbreak, infecting people along the way.

Two people from the sparsely populated region of Inner Mongolia were found to have pneumonic plague, a highly infectious disease related to bubonic plague, at a hospital in Beijing.

People in Madagascar are scrambling to get their hands on antibiotics and face masks, while public gatherings have been canceled, as a rare pneumonic plague epidemic spreads across the country.

An initial diagnostic test on the Seychelles man had been "weakly positive" for pneumonic plague, but definitive laboratory results are expected from the Institute Pasteur in Paris, the WHO said.

In late September, a man from the Seychelles -- who was in Madagascar to take part in the Indian Ocean Club Championship basketball tournament -- died in a hospital from pneumonic plague.

Unlike the more common bubonic plague — which spreads from rats to humans via fleas — pneumonic plague spreads from person to person through coughing and can be fatal within 24 hours.

At least 3 people in China were infected with pneumonic plague in November, which is the most dangerous kind, and the only one that can travel from person to person.

However, this year's outbreak is unusual in both the number of cases and also in the number of pneumonic plague cases, says Hinnebusch, because usually the majority of cases are bubonic.

Of Madagascar's 114 districts, 40 have reported cases of pneumonic plague and less than 30% of people who have had contact with cases can be traced, according to the UN office.

Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague globally and can advance and spread to the lungs, which is more severe type called pneumonic plague, according to the World Health Organization.

The agency praised Ugandan health workers for vigilance and prompt action in spotting a suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague, which the WHO says is usually fatal unless detected early and treated with antibiotics.

More than 120 -- including at least 17 deaths -- are suspected to be pneumonic plague, which is more severe, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, known as IFRC.

"If the bubonic plague is treated with antibiotics, there's a relatively high success rate, but if it's left untreated for a week or so, it can cause septic or pneumonic plague and death," Hinnebusch says.

More than a century ago, my great grandfather, Wu Lien Teh, vice director of China's Imperial Army Medical College, was tasked with controlling the pneumonic plague in northeastern China that killed nearly everyone it infected.

Low risk of international spread Extensive screening measures, informed travelers, short incubation periods of pneumonic plague, and increasing operational readiness of surrounding countries and islands has kept the risk of international spread low, said the WHO.

Pneumonic plague is more virulent or damaging and is an advanced form characterized by a severe lung infection that can be transmitted from person to person via airborne droplets such as through coughing or sneezing, for example.

Pneumonic plague kills even faster than the better-known bubonic form, which is transmitted by flea bites and gets its name from the infected lymph nodes that form large, swollen "buboes" in the groin, armpits and neck.

It can develop from a case of bubonic plague or septicemic plague (the latter is very rare), Hinnebusch says, which is called secondary pneumonic plague because it spreads from elsewhere in the body, not from inhaling the bacteria.

Making things worse, the type of bacteria that spread was the highly contagious pneumonic plague, a rare and more dangerous form of the disease that attacks the lungs and passes from person to person through droplets from coughing.

But the case that's being handled out of Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital is particularly concerning because it relates to a middle-aged married couple afflicted with a virulent version of the infection called pneumonic plague, according to the New York Times.

Ongoing efforts to control the spread of bubonic and pneumonic plague include seeking out and treating new cases, identifying the method of disease contact, disease follow-up and antibiotic treatment, rodent and flea control, and "safe and dignified burials," the WHO said in a statement.

Though the nation has abundant natural resources, it has struggled with political corruption, high poverty and pestilence, including a recent outbreak of a rare pneumonic plague that left more than 200 people dead and more than 1,700 infected, according to the World Health Organization.

When the pneumonic plague struck the northeastern provinces of the Chinese Empire (a region known then as Manchuria) in the autumn of 1910, the Chinese authorities broke with their longstanding opposition to Western medicine: They appointed Wu Lien-teh (also known as Wu Liande), a young and brilliant Cambridge-educated Chinese doctor from British Malaya, to oversee efforts to stem the outbreak.

At the same time, the newly discovered strain is very much like the version of Y. pestis we're already familiar with, containing the genes responsible for the deadliness of the modern pneumonic plague, for example (the plague manifests in two different forms, bubonic and pneumonic, the former being an infection of the lymphatic system and the latter being an infection of the respiratory system).

Case fatality rate of pneumonic plague in Madagascar is close to 75%.

Plague is present among rodents in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Pneumonic plague is more serious and less common than bubonic plague. The total reported number of cases of all types of plague in 2013 was 783. Left untreated, pneumonic plague is nearly always fatal.

August 3, 2009. In September 2010, five cases of pneumonic plague were reported in Tibet. In July 2014, Chinese media reported one case found in Gansu. On November 12, 2019, It was announced that two people, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, were diagnosed with pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague can be caused in two ways: primary, which results from the inhalation of aerosolised plague bacteria, or secondary, when septicaemic plague spreads into lung tissue from the bloodstream. Pneumonic plague is not exclusively vector-borne like bubonic plague; instead it can be spread from person to person. There have been cases of pneumonic plague resulting from the dissection or handling of contaminated animal tissue. This is one of the types of the plague formerly known as the Black Death.

The man was found to have the disease after the family dog died unexpectedly and a necropsy revealed that the disease was the cause.Coffman, Keith. Man diagnosed with rare pneumonic plague in Colorado, Reuters (July 9, 2014). Three additional pneumonic plague cases were confirmed in Colorado before the outbreak ended.

Cats are known to transmit plague. Plague can take three forms: bubonic plague, primary septicemic plague, and primary pneumonic plague.

Macartney, Jane (August 3, 2009). Entire town in quarantine after two die from pneumonic plague in China . The Times (London).

From Mild to Murderous: How Yersinia pestis Evolved to Cause Pneumonic Plague. Recording Archaeology, YouTube, 30 January 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.

This turned out to be the beginning of the large pneumonic plague pandemic of Manchuria and Mongolia which ultimately claimed 60,000 victims.

Medical team working together during a plague outbreak in Madagascar (October 2017). An outbreak of plague in November 2013, occurred in the African island nation of Madagascar. As of 16 December, at least 89 people were infected, with 39 deaths with at least two cases involving pneumonic plague. However, as many as 90% of cases were later reported to have involved pneumonic plague.

Lodewijk Heyligen, whose master the Cardinal Colonna died of plague in 1348, noted a distinct form of the disease, pneumonic plague, that infected the lungs and led to respiratory problems. Symptoms include fever, cough, and blood-tinged sputum. As the disease progresses, sputum becomes free-flowing and bright red. Pneumonic plague has a mortality rate of 90 to 95 percent.

In the past, cases of plague in Madagascar have been bubonic and not transmittable person to person. The increase in plague cases over the last 20 years have been largely due to an increase in pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is transmitted person to person via infected droplets. It is often difficult to diagnose and by the time it is diagnosed, cases are usually fatal.

Pneumonic plague is a very aggressive infection requiring early treatment. Antibiotics must be given within 24 hours of first symptoms to reduce the risk of death.Facts about Pneumonic Plague (Center for Disease Control, 2004) Streptomycin, gentamicin, tetracyclines and chloramphenicol are all able to kill the causative bacterium. Antibiotic treatment for seven days will protect people who have had direct, close contact with infected patients.

Ramasindrazana, B., Andrianaivoarimanana, V., Rakotondramanga, J. M., Birdsell, D. N., Ratsitorahina, M., & Rajerison, M. (2017). Pneumonic Plague Transmission, Moramanga, Madagascar, 2015. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 23(3), 521.

Human plague epidemics in this area are largely pneumonic plague, the most deadly form of plague. In 2019, a Mongolian couple died of plague after eating raw marmot meat.

However, it only occurs in a minority of cases of Yersinia infection. It is the rarest of the three plague varieties; the other forms are bubonic and pneumonic plague.

If the lymph node is overwhelmed, the infection can pass into the bloodstream, causing secondary septicemic plague and if the lungs are seeded, it can cause secondary pneumonic plague.

The pneumonic form may occur following an initial bubonic or septicemic plague infection. It may also result from breathing in airborne droplets from another person or animal infected with pneumonic plague. The difference between the forms of plague is the location of infection; in pneumonic plague the infection is in the lungs, in bubonic plague the lymph nodes, and in septicemic plague within the blood. Diagnosis is by testing the blood, sputum, or fluid from a lymph node.

This form of plague is also deadly. Pneumonic plague and septicemic plague often occur when bubonic plague goes untreated and are difficult to diagnose.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018). Plague. 2018.

An outbreak of measles in 2018 has resulted in 118,000 cases and 1,688 deaths. This followed outbreaks of bubonic and pneumonic plague in 2017 (2575 cases, 221 deaths) and 2014 (263 confirmed cases, 71 deaths).

In the fall of 1924, an outbreak occurred in Los Angeles that killed 30 people. On November 2, 2007, wildlife biologist Eric York died of pneumonic plague in Grand Canyon National Park. York was exposed to the bacteria while conducting a necropsy on a mountain lion carcass. In 2014, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment confirmed that a Colorado man had been diagnosed with pneumonic plague, the first confirmed human case in Colorado in more than ten years, and one of only 60 cases since 1957.

91–92 A special Russo-Japanese agreement of 1907 provided that Russian gauge tracks would continue from the "Russian" Kuancheng Station to the "Japanese" Changchun Station, and vice versa, tracks on the "gauge adapted by the South Manchuria Railway" (i.e. the standard gauge) would continue from Changchun Station to Kuancheng Station. An epidemic of pneumonic plague occurred in surrounding Manchuria from 1910 to 1911, known as the Manchurian plague. It was the worst-ever recorded outbreak of pneumonic plague which was spread through the Trans-Manchurian railway from the border trade port of Manzhouli.

Peru suffers deadly outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague , The Telegraph, August 3, 2010. Accessed November 4, 2014. The first recorded plague outbreak in Peru was in 1903. Since the above case, the last known was in 1994, killing 35 people.

The Ganesh Chaturthi festival created crowds in the city shortly thereafter, promoting the spread of pneumonic plague, which was declared on 21 September. By the end of the outbreak, an estimated 78% of confirmed cases were in the slums of Surat.

General symptoms of plague include fever, chills, headaches, and nausea. Many people experience swelling in their lymph nodes if they have bubonic plague. For those with pneumonic plague, symptoms may (or may not) include a cough, pain in the chest, and haemoptysis.

While vaccines are being developed, in most countries they are not yet commercially available. Prevention is by avoiding contact with infected rodents, people, or cats. It is recommended that those infected be isolated from others. Treatment of pneumonic plague is with antibiotics.

Plague vaccine is a vaccine used against Yersinia pestis. Dead bacteria have been used since 1890 but are less effective against pneumonic plague so that recently live vaccines of an attenuated type and recombination protein vaccines have been developed to prevent the disease.

Pneumonic plague occurs when plague infects the lungs and is transmissible person to person through infected droplets. This form of plague is very deadly. Septicemic plague occurs when plague enters the blood. Skin and tissues turn black and die, and bleeding into skin and organs often occurs.

Other treatments include oxygen, intravenous fluids, and respiratory support. People who have had contact with anyone infected by pneumonic plague are given prophylactic antibiotics. Using the broad-based antibiotic streptomycin has proven to be dramatically successful against the bubonic plague within 12 hours of infection.Echenberg, Myron (2002).

Doctors from NCDC had been previously summoned to investigate potential outbreaks of diseases including suspected cases of Pneumonic plague in Punjab in 2002, SARS outbreaks in 2004, meningitis outbreak in Delhi in 2005, and avian influenza in 2006, and have reviewed preparedness for coronavirus in 2019–2020.

Recently, plague outbreaks have become increasingly more severe. The most recent outbreak in August 2017 is the worst to date with over 1,800 confirmed cases of plague. Of these confirmed cases, 1,100 of them were cases of pneumonic plague. 114 districts of Madagascar were affected by the plague outbreak.

Those exposed to a case of pneumonic plague may be treated with preventive medication. If infected, treatment is with antibiotics and supportive care. Typically antibiotics include a combination of gentamicin and a fluoroquinolone. The risk of death with treatment is about 10% while without it is about 70%.

The commissioned corps was featured in the 1950 motion picture Panic in the Streets, in which Richard Widmark portrayed a Public Health Service physician tracking down a victim of pneumonic plague, an infectious disease that is one of three forms of plague, the other two being septicemic plague and bubonic plague.

This was the third outbreak of the disease in Qinghai within the last 10 years. Provincial health authorities in Qinghai and central government have been concerned about pneumonic plague for some years. As of February 2009, there were 55 teams across the province tasked to monitor and control the disease.

Pneumonic plague is a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Symptoms include fever, headache, shortness of breath, chest pain, and cough. They typically start about three to seven days after exposure. It is one of three forms of plague, the other two being septicemic plague and bubonic plague.

William Goldman is professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His research relates to pathogenesis of bacterial and fungal infections of the respiratory tract such as histoplasmosis, pneumonic plague, and pertussis. He was previously at the Washington University School of Medicine.

When the Black Death arrived in Avignon in 1348, physicians fled the city. However, Chauliac stayed on, treating plague patients and documenting symptoms meticulously. He claimed to have been himself infected and survived the disease. Through his observations, Chauliac distinguished between the two forms of the disease, the Bubonic Plague and the Pneumonic Plague.

Scientists who worked in USSR bio-weapons programs have stated that the Soviet effort was formidable and that large stocks of weaponised plague bacteria were produced. Information on many of the Soviet and US projects are largely unavailable. Aerosolized pneumonic plague remains the most significant threat. The plague can be easily treated with antibiotics.

An outbreak of plague in Madagascar in 2014 started on 31 August. On that day the first case, a man from Soamahamanina village in Tsiroanomandidy, was identified. The patient died on 3 September. The outbreak was in the form of bubonic and pneumonic plague. By 16 November 2014, a total of 119 cases had been confirmed, including 40 deaths.

Y. pestis bacilli can resist phagocytosis and even reproduce inside phagocytes and kill them. As the disease progresses, the lymph nodes can hemorrhage and become swollen and necrotic. Bubonic plague can progress to lethal septicemic plague in some cases. The plague is also known to spread to the lungs and become the disease known as the pneumonic plague.

The WHO and Institut Pasteur de Madagascar were both involved in administering antibiotic compounds and attempting to stop the spread of the disease. By mid- October there were an estimated 684 confirmed cases of plague with 474 pneumonic, 156 bubonic and one septicemic. The remainder were not classified. At least 74 deaths have been ascribed to pneumonic plague.

Directions for searchers, Pune plague of 1897 The plague, which was brought from Hong Kong to British India, killed about one million in India.Infectious Diseases: Plague Through History, sciencemag.org It later also killed another 12.5 million there over the next thirty years. Almost all cases were bubonic, with only a very small percentage changing to pneumonic plague.

Victims of the Manchurian plague, circa 1910. The Manchurian plague was a pneumonic plague that occurred between 1910 and 1911. It mainly hit the area of Manchuria, although some cases were reported in other places like Peking and Tianjin. Since there was no vaccine, the plague was very deadly, with estimates that it killed around 60,000 people, including doctors and nurses.

Occasionally, the swollen lymph nodes, known as buboes pictured to the right, may break open. The three types of plague are the result of the route of infection: bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague. Bubonic plague is mainly spread by infected fleas from small animals. It may also result from exposure to the body fluids from a dead plague-infected animal.

Season two had Norfolk Case Agent Timothy McGee being promoted to a full- time field agent, and transferring to NCIS HQ in Washington to work with the Major Case Response Team. Tony DiNozzo nearly died of the pneumonic plague in "SWAK" while the season finale, "Twilight", ended with a shocking and unexpected twist: Caitlin Todd was shot and killed by Ari Haswari.

Lpp, along with another OmpA-like lipoprotein called Pal/OprL (), maintains the stability of the cell envelope by attaching the outer membrane to the cell wall. Lpp has been proposed as a virulence factor of Yersinia pestis, the cause of plague. Y. pestis needs lpp for maximum survival in macrophages and to efficiently kill mouse models of bubonic and pneumonic plague.

A flea bite may cause the first one, while the second one is a severe version of bubonic plague. The worst thing is that pneumonic plague spreads like a flu and has 100% mortality rate. Over 100 thousand people died from the rapidly spreading deadly disease. It was possible to defeat this disease only by vaccinating those who had not yet fallen ill.

Today in Saratov, it is planned to spray reagents against pneumonic plague from helicopters and attack directly bacilli. This is the first case of a blogger who leaked fake news on a website. Garry Kasparov. Garry Kasparov On December 6, 2009, the WiMAX and Yota (Skartel) provider temporarily blocked a number of sites for Moscow users who had, to some extent, spoken of the Opposition.

The plague created religious, social, and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history. The Black Death most likely originated in Central Asia or East Asia, from where it travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1347. From there, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that travelled on Genoese merchant ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean Basin and reaching Africa, Western Asia, and the rest of Europe via Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula. Current evidence indicates that once it came onshore, the Black Death was in large part spread by human fleas – which cause pneumonic plague – and the person-to- person contact via aerosols which pneumonic plague enables, thus explaining the very fast inland spread of the epidemic, which was faster than would be expected if the primary vector was rat fleas causing bubonic plague.

As of August 6, no new cases of pneumonic plague had been found beyond the 12 patients in the town who were quarantined on July 31. As of August 6, three patients died and two were still in critical condition. The quarantine on the town was lifted on Saturday (2000 hrs, local time), August 8, 2009. This came after no reports of new infections for more than a week.

The pneumonic form of plague arises from infection of the lungs. It causes coughing and thereby produces airborne droplets that contain bacterial cells and are likely to infect anyone inhaling them. The incubation period for pneumonic plague is short, usually two to four days, but sometimes just a few hours. The initial signs are indistinguishable from several other respiratory illnesses; they include headache, weakness, and spitting or vomiting of blood.

"Bubonic plague 'worse than Black Death' kills 39 in Madagascar" , South China Morning Post, December 12, 2013. Accessed November 4, 2014. From 23 August to 30 September 2017, a total of 73 suspected, probable, and confirmed cases of pneumonic plague, including 17 deaths, were reported in Madagascar. The diagnosis was confirmed by the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar by polymerase chain reaction test while field health workers used Rapid Diagnostic Test.

The type of plague the player had was not reported, but one of the cases in the Seychelles who died of pneumonic plague was thought to have attended the same tournament. The World Health Organization warned that there was a high risk the disease could spread to nine other countries in Africa and the Indian Ocean (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Seychelles, Comoros, Reunion, and Mauritius) because of frequent trade and travel with Madagascar.

Twelve more cases of suspected plague appeared in the Seychelles days after the death of a 34-year-old male who had recently traveled to Madagascar and who was confirmed as having pneumonic plague on 10 October 2017. Air Seychelles suspended all flights to Madagascar. More sophisticated tests later showed that the infection was not plague. A South African basketball player who contracted plague while attending a tournament in Madagascar was successfully treated and returned home.

Today, human plague infections continue to occur in the western United States, but significantly more cases occur in parts of Africa and Asia. Plague is a very serious illness, but is treatable with commonly available antibiotics. The earlier a patient seeks medical care and receives treatment that is appropriate for plague, the better their chances are of a full recovery. People in close contact with very sick pneumonic plague patients may be evaluated and possibly placed under observation.

The outbreak in Ziketan was first detected on Thursday, July 30, 2009. On August 2, the authorities quarantined Ziketan after a dozen people were sickened with pneumonic plague, a lung infection that can kill a human in 24 hours if left untreated. Police checkpoints were set up in a radius around Ziketan, and residents were not allowed to leave. The streets were largely deserted and most shops shut, and 23 quarantine stations were set up in the town.

A major outbreak of the pneumonic plague occurred in Manchuria from 1910–1911, in what became known as the Manchurian plague, killing around 60,000 people. The Qing court dispatched Wu Lien-teh, a doctor educated at Cambridge University, to oversee disease control and treatment efforts. He made the novel observation that the disease was transmitted by air, and developed prototypical respirators to help prevent its spread. A second, less deadly outbreak occurred in 1920–21, killing approximately 9,300 people.

The plague comes in three forms and it brought an array of signs and symptoms to those infected. The classic sign of bubonic plague was the appearance of buboes in the groin, the neck, and armpits, which oozed pus and bled. Most victims died within four to seven days after infection. The septicaemic plague is a form of "blood poisoning", and pneumonic plague is an airborne plague that attacks the lungs before the rest of the body.

The malaria mortality rate is also among the lowest in Africa at 8.5 deaths per 100,000 people, in part because of the highest frequency use of insecticide treated nets in Africa. Adult life expectancy in 2009 was 63 years for men and 67 years for women. Madagascar had outbreaks of the bubonic plague and pneumonic plague in 2017 (2575 cases, 221 deaths) and 2014 (263 confirmed cases, 71 deaths). In 2019, Madagascar had a measles outbreak, resulting in 118,000 cases and 1,688 deaths.

After spending one year as the house surgeon in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Hood joined the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). He served in France and Belgium during the First World War, and then in India and Afghanistan shortly afterwards. He became a specialist in pathology, serving in Meerut and Bangalore and then as deputy assistant district pathologist for Madras region. Hood conducted research on cerebrospinal meningitis and pneumonic plague, and in 1929 he was appointed assistant district pathologist to Southern Command.

Her husband was recalled to Ireland in 1910 to aid in the treatment of those suffering from the pneumonic plague. In 1912 she published her memoirs, An Irishwoman in China, in which she described the customs and people of China, and the lifestyle of Europeans living there. She edited two collections of her brother's work: Chronicles and poems of Percy French (1922) and Prose, poems and parodies of Percy French (1925). She died at Priory Lodge, Blackrock, County Dublin on 13 November 1935.

At the same time, he became a regular contributor in several nationalist journals. In March 1927, El Materi opened his own office in Bab Menara quarter, while continuing to work as a volunteering assistant at Sadiki Hospital. In the 1930s, he joined Dr. Conseil's team in their work to fight pneumonic plague that raged then in Tunisia. As part of the process, patients were isolated in quarantine in the civil prison, and the medical team joined them in order to treat them.

His younger brother, Iltyd Nicholl Clayton, was also a British Army officer. In 1912, he married Enid Caroline Thorowgood in London, with the ceremony being conducted by Llewellyn Henry Gwynne, the Bishop of Khartoum.Gilbert Clayton, Jenab Tutunji, Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, August 2004Sir Gilbert Falkingham Clayton CMG CB KBE KCMG (1875–1929), dsthorne.com, accessed 25 January 2010 They had five children, but, as the family accompanied him to his appointments, two of them died, one from pneumonic plague.

A mask with a beak-like structure which was filled with pleasant-smelling flowers, herbs and spices to prevent the spread of miasma, the prescientific belief of bad smells which spread disease through the air. In more recent years, scientific personal protective equipment is generally believed to have begun with the cloth facemasks promoted by Wu Lien- teh in the 1910–11 Manchurian pneumonic plague outbreak, although many Western medics doubted the efficacy of facemasks in preventing the spread of disease.

A more recent outbreak of plague in Madagascar began in August 2017 and expanded rapidly, with about two-thirds of cases transmitted person-to-person as pneumonic plague, the most dangerous form of the disease. The death toll of 124 by 20 October exceeded that of previous outbreaks. More than half of cases have been recorded in the capital of Antananarivo and the main port of Toamasina, the largest cities in Madagascar. Nine nearby countries were considered at high risk of a similar outbreak.

The outbreak began in August 2017 with the death from pneumonic plague of a 31-year-old man who had been traveling in a crowded minibus toward the capital city of Antananarivo in the central highlands. The outbreak expanded rapidly, transmitted person-to-person in the pneumonic form of the disease, which accounted for more than 60 percent of cases. Scientists discovered three new strains of Y. pestis in Madagascar in 2017. Additionally, one strain of Y. pestis was found to be resistant to antibiotic treatment.

Epidemiological trends for human plague in Madagascar during the second half of the 20th century: a survey of 20 900 notified cases. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 11(8), 1228-1237. Although plague is prevalent in other countries, Madagascar has the highest fatality and accounts for 30% of all plague cases largely due to poverty and lack of health resources like antibiotics and proper testing. Furthermore, outbreaks of plague have become increasingly more severe due to bubonic plague going untreated and developing into pneumonic plague.

Buboes are a symptom of bubonic plague, and occur as painful swellings in the thighs, neck, groin or armpits. They are caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria spreading from flea bites through the bloodstream to the lymph nodes, where the bacteria replicate, causing the nodes to swell. Plague buboes may turn black and necrotic, rotting away the surrounding tissue, or they may rupture, discharging large amounts of pus. Infection can spread from buboes around the body, resulting in other forms of the disease such as pneumonic plague.

In August 2010, Peru's health minister Oscar Ugarte announced that an outbreak of plague had killed a 14-year-old boy and had infected at least 31 people in a northern coastal province. The boy died of bubonic plague on 26 July 2010. Ugarte stated that authorities were screening sugar and fish meal exports from Ascope Province, located about 325 miles (520 km) northwest of Lima, not far from popular Chicama beach. Most of the infections in Peru were bubonic plague, with four cases of pneumonic plague.

Atypical bacteria causing pneumonia are Coxiella burnetii, Chlamydophila pneumoniae (), Mycoplasma pneumoniae (), and Legionella pneumophila. The term "atypical" does not relate to how commonly these organisms cause pneumonia, how well it responds to common antibiotics or how typical the symptoms are; it refers instead to the fact that these organisms have atypical or absent cell wall structures and do not take up Gram stain in the same manner as gram-negative and gram-positive organisms. Pneumonia caused by Yersinia pestis is usually called pneumonic plague.

The 1994 plague in India was an outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague in south-central and western India from 26 August to 18 October 1994. 693 suspected cases and 56 deaths were reported from the five affected Indian states as well as the Union Territory of Delhi. These cases were from Maharashtra (488 cases), Gujarat (77 cases), Karnataka (46 cases), Uttar Pradesh (10 cases), Madhya Pradesh (4 cases) and New Delhi (68 cases). There are no reports of cases being exported to other countries.

She changes her mind, and becomes engaged to Raj. In the second season, she becomes increasingly wary of her wedding, culminating in her becoming infatuated with Adam, one of HankMed's patients. In the season finale, after she and Raj are exposed to pneumonic plague, Divya decides to call off her wedding once and for all, as she felt the universe had sent her "one sign too many" that she could not ignore. In the 2011 season premiere, Divya broke the news to her parents that she and Raj had broken off their engagement.

After the victims on the coaster die from pneumonic plague, a viral video appears in which four disguised eco- terrorists claim responsibility for the incident. They embark on further attacks, including blowing up a petrol tanker and distributing poisoned food. As the police close in on the group, they are all found dead in a shipping container, thus raising the question of whether there are other terrorist cells or a larger group. The keynote speaker of an upcoming EU climate conference in Copenhagen is one of those killed by poisoning.

Ship building along the Mary River Australia's only outbreak of pneumonic plague occurred in Maryborough in 1905. At the time Maryborough was Queensland's largest port—a reception centre for wool, meat, timber, sugar and other rural products. A freighter from Hong Kong, where plague was rampant, was in the Port of Maryborough about the time that a wharf worker named Richard O'Connell took home some sacking from the wharf, for his children to sleep on. Subsequently, five of the seven O'Connell children, two nurses, and a neighbour died from the disease.

Bertherat has written extensively on the plague. In fact he is a principal investigator. Bertherat stressed in 2011 that the "rapid onset and high lethality are (the pneumonic plague)'s only distinguishable clinical features as the disease otherwise manifests itself as a severe respiratory infection that could be caused by various pathogens." To isolate and contain Yersinia pestis necessitated modifications in diagnostic strategies; "trained personnel for quality specimen collection and appropriate specimen handling and preservation" were required for confirmation of this particular disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Maddox Beck, an eco-terrorist, steals an ancient clay painting from his wife to map out the location of a dormant pneumonic plague virus. Beck successfully recovers the virus and weaponizes it to inoculate his followers and create a worldwide epidemic. The Task Force contains most of the followers, but Samar and Elizabeth are infected by one of them at Dulles International Airport. With Aram's help, Reddington learns Beck's location and steals a supply of synthesized vaccine, as well as a necklace and a key, before leaving Beck to commit suicide.

The bubonic plague was the most commonly seen form during the Black Death. The bubonic form of the plague has a mortality rate of thirty to seventy-five percent and symptoms include fever of 38–41 °C (101–105 °F), headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise. The second most common form is the pneumonic plague and has symptoms that include fever, cough, and blood-tinged sputum. As the disease progressed, sputum became free flowing and bright red and death occurred within 2 days.

Rascovan et al (2019) suggest that plague could have also caused the population decline. That is supported by the discovery of a tomb in modern-day Sweden containing 79 corpses buried within a short time, in which the authors discovered fragments of a unique strain of the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis. The authors note that the strain contained the "plasminogen activator gene that is sufficient to cause pneumonic plague", an extremely deadly form of the plague which is airborne and directly communicable between humans. A similar site was found in China in 2011.

In the first week of August 1994 health officials reported unusually large numbers of deaths of domestic rats in Surat city of Gujarat state. On 21 September 1994 the Deputy Municipal Commissioner of Health (DMCH) for Surat city received a report that a patient had died seemingly due to pneumonic plague. The DMCH of Surat alerted medical officers in the area where the patient had died. Later that day, a worried caller informed DMCH about 10 deaths in Ved Road residential area and around 50 seriously ill patients admitted to the hospital.

The outbreak appeared to peak in mid-October with the number of new cases declining. Typically the annual plague outbreak peaks in December and runs until April. On 2 November, a ProMED-mail moderator expressed surprise at the considerable variation reported in numbers of cases and deaths, especially with the relatively low case-fatality rate considering that pneumonic plague is reported to account for over 60 percent of deaths. An article from the World Health Organization reported more than 1800 cases as of late October, while nearly 500 fewer had been reported in the week previously.

Septicemic plague was the least common of the three plague varieties that occurred during the Black Death from 1348 to 1350 (the other two being bubonic plague and pneumonic plague). Like the others, septicemic plague spread from the East through trade routes on the Black Sea and down to the Mediterranean Sea. Major port cities such as Venice and Florence were hit the hardest. The massive loss of working population in Europe following the Black Death, resulting in increased economic bargaining power of the serf labour force, was a major precipitating factor for the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Populations began to rise after 3500 BCE, with further dips and rises occurring between 3000 and 2500 BCE but varying in date between regions. Around this time is the Neolithic decline, when populations collapsed across most of Europe, possibly caused by climatic conditions, plague, or mass migration. A study of twelve European regions found most experienced boom and bust patterns and suggested an "endogenous, not climatic cause". Recent archaeological evidence suggests the possibility of plague causing this population collapse, as mass graves dating from around 2900 BCE were discovered containing fragments of Yersinia pestis genetic material consistent with pneumonic plague.

They drive west, only to discover that almost all bridges over the Mississippi have been disabled; the one remaining bridge is guarded by army troops on the western side, who shoot anyone attempting to cross over. The girl abandons him; as he travels further, Gary learns that the nuclear attack was combined with bacteriological warfare which infected the entire population with pneumonic plague. Only those rare individuals with natural resistance have survived, but since they are carriers of the disease, the entire eastern third of the country has been quarantined. Gary is nevertheless determined to cross over.

Pathogenesis due to Y. pestis infection of mammalian hosts is due to several factors, including an ability of these bacteria to suppress and avoid normal immune system responses such as phagocytosis and antibody production. Flea bites allow for the bacteria to pass the skin barrier. Y. pestis expresses a plasmin activator that is an important virulence factor for pneumonic plague and that might degrade on blood clots to facilitate systematic invasion. Many of the bacteria's virulence factors are antiphagocytic in nature. Two important antiphagocytic antigens, named F1 (fraction 1) and V or LcrV, are both important for virulence.

The human remains were found to be victims of the Great Plague of London, which lasted from 1665 to 1666. On January 15, 2018, researchers at the University of Oslo and the University of Ferrara suggested that humans and their parasites were the biggest carriers of the plague. On November 3, 2019, two cases of pneumonic plague were diagnosed at a hospital in Beijing's Chaoyang district, prompting fears of an outbreak. Doctors diagnosed a middle- aged man with fever, who had complained of difficulty breathing for some ten days, accompanied by his wife with similar symptoms.

When indexed to weapon mass and cost of development and storage, biological weapons possess destructive potential and loss of life far in excess of nuclear, chemical or conventional weapons. Accordingly, biological agents are potentially useful as strategic deterrents, in addition to their utility as offensive weapons on the battlefield. As a tactical weapon for military use, a significant problem with a BW attack is that it would take days to be effective, and therefore might not immediately stop an opposing force. Some biological agents (smallpox, pneumonic plague) have the capability of person-to-person transmission via aerosolized respiratory droplets.

The worst-ever recorded outbreak of pneumonic plague was spread to Harbin through the Trans-Manchurian railway from the border trade port of Manzhouli. The plague lasted from late autumn of 1910 to spring 1911 and killed 1,500 Harbin residents (mostly ethnic Chinese), or about five percent of its population at the time. This turned out to be the beginning of the large so-called Manchurian plague pandemic which ultimately claimed 60,000 victims. In the winter of 1910, Dr. Wu Lien-teh (later the founder of Harbin Medical University) was given instructions from the Foreign Office, Peking, to travel to Harbin to investigate the plague.

Collecting the dead for burial during the Great Plague The Great Plague, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics which originated from Central Asia in 1331, the first year of the Black Death, an outbreak which included other forms such as pneumonic plague, and lasted until 1750. The Great Plague killed an estimated 100,000 people—almost a quarter of London's population—in 18 months. The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected rat flea.

In the winter of 1910, Wu was given instructions from the Foreign Office, Peking, to travel to Harbin to investigate an unknown disease that killed 99.9% of its victims. This was the beginning of the large pneumonic plague pandemic of Manchuria and Mongolia, which ultimately claimed 60,000 victims. Wu was able to conduct a postmortem (usually not accepted in China at the time) on a Japanese woman who had died of the plague. Having ascertained via the autopsy that the plague was spreading by air, Wu developed surgical masks he had seen in use in the West into more substantial masks with layers of gauze and cotton to filter the air.

Bubonic plague is a zoonotic disease, primarily infecting rodents, spread by fleas, and only occasionally infecting humans. Human-to-human infection of bubonic plague does not occur, though it can occur in pneumonic plague, which infects the lungs. Only when the density of rodents is low are infected fleas forced to feed on alternative hosts such as humans, and under these circumstances a human epidemic may occur. Based on population genetic models, Galvani and Slatkin (2003) argue that the intermittent nature of plague epidemics did not generate a sufficiently strong selective force to drive the allele frequency of CCR5 Δ32 to 10% in Europe.

Some ways to prevent airborne diseases include disease-specific immunization, wearing a respirator and limiting time spent in the presence of any patient likely to be a source of infection. Exposure to a patient or animal with an airborne disease does not guarantee contracting the disease, as infection is dependent on host immune system competency plus the quantity of infectious particles ingested. Antibiotics may be used in dealing with air-borne bacterial primary infections, such as pneumonic plague. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises the public about vaccination and following careful hygiene and sanitation protocols for airborne disease prevention.

Hunters were sent to poison the affected areas in Oakland and shoot the squirrels, but the eradication work was limited in its range because the State Board of Health and the United States Public Health Service were only allotted about $60,000 a year to eradicate the disease. During this period Oakland did not have sufficient health facilities, so some of the infected patients were treated at home. The State Board of Health along with Oakland also advised physicians to promptly report any cases of infected patients. Yet, in 1919 it still resulted in a small epidemic of Pneumonic plague which killed a dozen people in Oakland.

220–21 Ishii innovated bombs containing live mice and fleas, with very small explosive loads, to deliver the weaponized microbes, overcoming the problem of the explosive killing the infected animal and insect by the use of a ceramic, rather than metal, casing for the warhead. While no records survive of the actual usage of the ceramic shells, prototypes exist and are believed to have been used in experiments during WWII. After World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed means of weaponising pneumonic plague. Experiments included various delivery methods, vacuum drying, sizing the bacterium, developing strains resistant to antibiotics, combining the bacterium with other diseases (such as diphtheria), and genetic engineering.

In season two, he nearly dies from a bout with the pneumonic plague after a woman sends a letter filled with genetically altered Yersinia pestis to NCIS for revenge for what she believed to be neglect of a cold case. Tony ably leads the team in Gibbs's absence when the latter retires to Mexico after recovering from a coma. When Gibbs returns to lead the team, Tony declines an offer to lead his own team and resumes his former position, to support Gibbs who is suffering after-effects of the coma and to continue working with the team he considers family. At the end of season five, Tony is assigned as Special Agent Afloat to the USS Ronald Reagan and later to the USS Seahawk.

Manchuria shared a long border with Russia, which had been weakened militarily after the October Revolution. The line of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which was under Russian control, ran through northern Manchuria and the land immediately on either side of the tracks was considered to be Russian territory. From 1917 to about 1924 the new Communist government in Moscow was having such difficulties establishing itself in Siberia that often it was not clear who was in charge of operating the railway on the Russian side. Still, Zhang avoided a showdown and after 1924 the Soviets re-established their dominance over the railroad. The situation's precariousness was demonstrated by an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Hailar, a town at the western end of the Chinese Eastern Railway, in October 1920.

Abby's relationship with Tony is a friendly one, with the two making friendly, nonhostile jibes at each other, and squabbling about various topics, such as movies and personal possessions. Abby is perhaps the only member of the NCIS cast who displays a love and knowledge of movies that even comes close to matching Tony's. In "Twilight", after Tony narrowly avoids being part of an explosion on his first day back from sick leave after getting pneumonic plague, she runs at him and hugs him so hard he nearly falls over. In the episode, "Frame-Up", she almost single-handedly unravels the forensic evidence used to frame Tony of murder to clear his name, then subdues the killer – her assistant Chip Sterling – when he threatens her with a knife.

This theory gave way to the dynamics of Galileo Galilei and for Isaac Newton's famous principle of Inertia. Guy de Chauliac (1300-1368) was a French physician and surgeon who wrote the Chirurgia magna, a widely read publication throughout medieval Europe that became one of the standard textbooks for medical knowledge for the next three centuries. During the Black Death he clearly distinguished Bubonic Plague and Pneumonic Plague as separate diseases, that they were contagious from person to person, and offered advice such as quarantine to avoid their spread in the population. He also served as the personal physician for three successive popes of the Avignon Papacy. John Arderne (1307-1392) was an English physician and surgeon who invented his own anesthetic that combined hemlock, henbane, and opium.

He never contracted the disease, even though there was so much death around him that the cities ran out of ground for cemeteries, and he had to consecrate the entire Rhone River so that it could be considered holy ground and bodies could be thrown into it.Baluze, I, pp. 251-252. One of Pope Clement's physicians, Gui de Chauliac, later wrote a book called the Chirurgia magna (1363), in which he correctly distinguished between bubonic and pneumonic plague, based on his own observations of his patients and himself. Perhaps feeling the pressure of mortality, having lost no fewer than six cardinals in the year 1348 alone,Gauscelin de Jean Duèse, Pedro Gómez Barroso [Lützelschwab, pp. 481-482], Imbertus de Puteo (Dupuis) [Lützelschwab, pp. 471-472], Giovanni Colonna, Pierre Bertrand, and Gozzio (Gotius, Gozo) Battaglia [Lützelschwab, pp. 459-460].

Panic in the Streets is a 1950 film noir directed by Elia Kazan. It was shot exclusively on location in New Orleans, Louisiana, and features numerous New Orleans citizens in speaking and non-speaking roles.. The film tells the story of Lieutenant Commander Clinton Reed, an officer of the U.S. Public Health Service (played by Richard Widmark) and a police captain (Paul Douglas) who have only a day or two in which to prevent an epidemic of pneumonic plague after Reed determines a waterfront homicide victim is an index case. Co-stars include Barbara Bel Geddes (as Reed's wife Nancy), Jack Palance (in his film debut) and Zero Mostel – the latter two play associates of the victim who had prompted the investigation. The film was also the debut of Tommy Rettig, who played the Reeds' son.

As a substitute, residents turned to coal, which was first mined in the Western Hills during the Yuan dynasty and expanded in the Ming. The use of coal caused many environmental problems and changed the ecological system around the city. During the Ming dynasty, 15 epidemic outbreaks occurred in the city of Beijing including smallpox, "pimple plague" and "vomit blood plague" - the latter two were possibly bubonic plague and pneumonic plague. In most cases, the public health system functioned well in gaining control of the outbreaks, except in 1643. That year, epidemics claimed 200,000 lives in Beijing, thus compromising the defense of the city from the attacks of the peasant rebels and contributing to the downfall of the dynasty. During the 15th and 16th centuries, banditry was common near Beijing despite the presence of imperial government.

After brawling over a card game in the wharf area of New Orleans, a man named Kochak (Lewis Charles), suffering visibly from a flu-like illness, is killed by gangster Blackie (Jack Palance) and his two flunkies, Kochak's cousin Poldi (Guy Thomajan) and a man named Fitch (Zero Mostel). They leave the body on the docks, and later when the dead man, who carries no identification, is brought to the morgue, the coroner grows suspicious about the bacteria present in his blood and calls Lieutenant Commander Clinton Reed (Richard Widmark), a doctor and commissioned corps officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. Reed is enjoying a rare day off with his wife Nancy (Barbara Bel Geddes) and their son Tommy (Tommy Rettig), but decides to inspect the body. After careful examination, he determines that Kochak had "pneumonic plague," the pulmonary version of bubonic plague.

The People's Republic of China has eradicated the pneumonic plague from most parts of the country, but still reports occasional cases in remote Western areas where the disease is carried by rats and the marmots that live across the Himalayan plateau. Outbreaks can be caused when a person eats an infected marmot or comes into contact with fleas carried by rats. A 2006 WHO report from an international meeting on plague cited a Chinese government disease expert as saying that most cases of the plague in China's northwest occur when hunters are contaminated while skinning infected animals. The expert said at the time that due to the region's remoteness, the disease killed more than half the infected people. The report also said that since the 1990s, there was a rise in plague cases in humans—from fewer than 10 in the 1980s to nearly 100 cases in 1996 and 254 in 2000.

In a similar vein, historian Norman Cantor, in In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made (2001), suggests the Black Death might have been a combination of pandemics including a form of anthrax, a cattle murrain. He cites many forms of evidence including: reported disease symptoms not in keeping with the known effects of either bubonic or pneumonic plague, the discovery of anthrax spores in a plague pit in Scotland, and the fact that meat from infected cattle was known to have been sold in many rural English areas prior to the onset of the plague. The means of infection varied widely, with infection in the absence of living or recently dead humans in Sicily (which speaks against most viruses). Also, diseases with similar symptoms were generally not distinguished between in that period (see murrain above), at least not in the Christian world; Chinese and Muslim medical records can be expected to yield better information which however only pertains to the specific disease(s) which affected these areas.