Neglected Diseases Plague: Past, Present, and Future

• Main Authors: Nils Chr Stenseth, Bakyt B. Atshabar, Mike Begon, Steven R. Belmain, Eric Bertherat, Elisabeth Carniel, Kenneth L. Gage, Herwig Leirs, Lila Rahalison
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Avian flu
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.427.1718; http://research-archive.liv.ac.uk/806/1/806.pdf

syndrome) [1] and avian flu shows that the public and political response to threats from new anthropozoonoses can be near-hysteria. This can readily make us forget more classical animal-borne diseases, such as plague (Box 1). Three recent international meetings on plague (Box 2) concluded that: (1) it should be re-emphasised that the plague bacillus (Yersinia pestis) still causes several thousand human cases per year [2,3] (Figure 1); (2) locally perceived risks far outstrip the objective risk based purely on the number of cases [2]; (3) climate change might increase the risk of plague outbreaks where plague is currently endemic and new plague areas might arise [2,4]; (4) remarkably little is known about the dynamics of plague in its natural reservoirs and hence about changing risks for humans [5]; and