Pneumonic plague

Pneumonic plague is a lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It can spread between people through respiratory droplets, especially during close contact.

Yersinia pestis: A bacterium that causes plague in humans and other mammals. This bacterium causes pneumonic plague and drives its progression.
Pneumonia: Inflammation of lung tissue, often caused by infection. Pneumonic plague is a specific infectious cause of pneumonia.
Black Death: The devastating pandemic that spread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa during the fourteenth century. Pneumonic transmission may have contributed to some outbreaks associated with this pandemic.
Plague: A potentially severe infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Pneumonic disease is one of the principal clinical forms of plague.
Plague vaccine: A vaccine intended to protect against infection or disease caused by Yersinia pestis. No widely used vaccine provides routine protection against pneumonic plague.
Respiratory droplets: Small particles expelled from the respiratory tract during breathing, talking, coughing, or sneezing. Infectious droplets can carry Yersinia pestis from a patient to another person nearby.
Sputum culture: A laboratory test that grows and identifies microorganisms in coughed-up respiratory secretions. Respiratory samples can help identify Yersinia pestis in suspected lung plague.
Third plague pandemic: A plague pandemic that began in China in the nineteenth century and spread internationally. Its investigations established much of modern knowledge about Yersinia pestis and plague transmission.
Incubation period: The time between exposure to an infectious agent and the onset of symptoms. The short interval before symptoms can complicate timely recognition of exposure.
Antimicrobial resistance: The ability of microorganisms to survive exposure to medicines that would normally inhibit or kill them. Resistance could complicate treatment, although naturally resistant plague strains are rare.

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Wu Lien-tehBroader topic: Identifying this form of plague shaped Wu’s response to person-to-person transmission.