Project 365 Day 31: Science Thursday

As part of returning this blog to things a little more scientific and to help me look at things outside of articles in genetics and anthropology I decided to do a little thing called Science Thursday where I take a recent research article that has peaked my interest in the last week. This is one from PLOS Medicine on Plague, Past, Present, and Future. The gist of this article is that plague is still a serious problem worldwide. Granted cart loads of people aren't being wheeled and city's burned but it still remains a viable public health concern. Figure 1 from there article shows the reservoir where plaque still resides. Yes, the US is one of them mostly in the west. The figure also show plague cases and countries that have reported them.



There are three types of plague: 1) bubonic, the one that cause the black death in Europe and two others pandemics Justinian and 19th century China one and is still the most common form of plaque; 2) septicaemic which involves an infection of the blood; and 3) pneumonic which is transmitted directly from human to human (if you remember the movie Outbreak it is airborne and by the way that is New World Monkey). The last two are almost always fatal without antibiotics.

The article points out that it is impossible to eradicate plaque because it found in wild rodents, which are difficult to exterminate therefore the current outbreak approach is reactive rather than proactive. The major point of this article is more of reminder that plaque is still with us and not to forget that it takes the right conditions to spread like wildfire.

Plague: Past, Present, and Future Stenseth NC, Atshabar BB, Begon M, Belmain SR, Bertherat E, et al. PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 1, e3 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050003