Volume 6, Issue 1 (1-2018)                   JoMMID 2018, 6(1): 20-24 | Back to browse issues page


XML Print


Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Research Centre for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract:   (5133 Views)
Plague is an endemic disease to the west of Iran and has frequently stricken this area over the last decades. In 1954, Pasteur Institute of Iran established a research station in the west of the country and since then has monitored the plague outbreaks as well as the disease status in rodents and carnivores by dispatching research teams to different villages and localities. We noticed that there were some valuable data from the past with no records in Journals, among them, a report of a plague outbreak in Seyed Abad village, West Azerbaijan province in 1966. During this 41-day outbreak, 22 people acquired the infection, and 11 died. Fever and buboes were the most predominant clinical symptoms in the patients. The causative agent Yersinia pestis was identified by examination of biopsies from lymph nodes, bacteriological tests, and inoculation of guinea pigs. The bubonic form of the disease and the epidemiological data suggested that the disease might have been transmitted to humans through the infective-bite of the fleas of the wild animals mainly rodents living in the vicinity of the homes of Seyed Abad village.
Full-Text [PDF 507 kb]   (2034 Downloads)    
Type of Study: Original article | Subject: Infectious diseases and public health
Received: 2018/04/18 | Accepted: 2018/04/23 | Published: 2018/08/27

References
1. ------------- 1. Bendiner E. Alexandre Yersin: pursuer of plague. Hospital practice (Office ed). 1989; 24 (3A): 121.
2. 2. Prentice MB, Rahalison L. Plague. The Lancet. 2007; 369 (9568): 1196-207. [DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60566-2]
3. 3. Steele JH, Stoenner H, Kaplan W, Torten M. CRC handbook series in zoonoses: section A: bacterial, rickettsial, and mycotic diseases, volume I: CRC; 1979.
4. 4. Perry RD, Fetherston JD. Yersinia pestis--etiologic agent of plague. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1997; 10 (1): 35-66. [PMID] [PMCID]
5. 5. Linardi PM. Fleas and diseases. Arthropod Borne Dis. 2017; 517-36. Springer, Cham.
6. 6. Mladenova-Hristova I, Tsachev I. Yersinia pestis old and new challenges in human and in animal. Trakia J Sci. 2014; 12 (2): 211.
7. 7. World Health Organization, Emergencies preparedness, response: plague manual: epidemiology, distribution, surveillance and control. 2016.
8. 8. Stenseth NC, Atshabar BB, Begon M, Belmain S, Bertherat E, Carniel E, et al. Plague: past, present, and future. PLoS medicine. 2008; 5 (1): e3. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050003] [PMID] [PMCID]
9. 9. Benedictow OJ. The Black Death, 1346-1353: the complete history. Boydell & Brewer; 2004.
10. 10. Santana L, Santos S, Gazineo J, Gomes A, Miguel P, Geller M, et al. Plague: A New Old Disease. J Epidemiol Public Health Rev. 2016; 1 (4): 1-7.
11. 11. Schneider MC, Najera P, Aldighieri S, Galan DI, Bertherat E, Ruiz A, et al. Where Does Human Plague Still Persist in Latin America? PLOS Negl Trop Dis. 2014; 8 (2): e2680. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002680] [PMID] [PMCID]
12. 12. Hashemi Shahraki A, Carniel E, Mostafavi E. Plague in Iran: its history and current status. Epidemiol Community Health. 2016; 38:e2016033. [DOI:10.4178/epih.e2016033] [PMID] [PMCID]
13. 13. Bos KI, Stevens P, Nieselt K, Poinar HN, DeWitte SN, Krause J. Yersinia pestis: new evidence for an old infection. PLoS One. 2012; 7 (11): e49803. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0049803] [PMID] [PMCID]
14. 14. Willem M Floor. Public Health in Qajar Iran: Mage Publishers; 2004. [PMCID]
15. 15. Manijeh Yousefi Behzadi, Ehsan Mostafavi. A Historical Report of Plague Outbreak in Northern Kermanshah Province, Western Iran, in 1952. Res Hist Med. 2014; 3 (4): 221-30 [In Persian].
16. 16. Karimi y. Plague and its epidemiology. 1st ed Tehran, Pasteur Institute of Iran. 1976: 55-84 [In Persian].
17. 17. Esamaeili S, Azadmanesh K, Naddaf SR, Rajerison M, Carniel E, Mostafavi E. Serologic survey of plague in animals, Western Iran. Emerg Infect Dis. 2013; 19 (9): 1549. [DOI:10.3201/eid1909.121829] [PMID] [PMCID]
18. 18. Karimi Y. Plague and its epidemiology. 1st ed. Tehran, Pasteur Institute of Iran.1976: 163.
19. 19. Mahbubar RM. Insecticide substitutes for DDT to control mosquitoes may be causes of several diseases. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2013; 20 (4): 2064-9. [DOI:10.1007/s11356-012-1145-0] [PMID] [PMCID]

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.