The ancient term plague recently returned to headlines following reports about a 28-year-old researcher in Siberia who died from pneumonia of an unknown origin. While Russia’s consumer health watchdog concluded that no pathogens in her body were connected to her infectious disease work, local media raised concerns regarding pneumonic plague. The World Health Organization noted that Russian assurances remained incomplete, leaving officials unable to conduct a full risk assessment while hundreds of contacts faced quarantine. The plague manifests in various versions depending on the affected body part. Flea bites typically cause bubonic plague, characterized by swollen and painful lymph nodes known as buboes. Conversely, when bacteria spread to the lungs, it triggers pneumonic plague. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this version lacks the telltale physical signs of bubonic plague. Medical entomologist Adelaide Miarinjara at Emory University explains that pneumonic plague transmits easily through airborne droplets, similar to how COVID spreads. The disease progresses rapidly, making early diagnosis critical to prevent rapid fatalities, though treatment relies on standard antibiotics often administered via IV infusion. Madagascar experienced a major pneumonic plague outbreak in 2017 after an infected individual traveled to Toamasina, resulting in over 2,400 suspected cases and nearly 1,900 pneumonic instances, with an estimated 25% mortality rate for confirmed cases. The recent quarantining of contacts in Russia reflects a historical practice dating back thousands of years. The term quarantine originated during the Black Death in Dubrovnik, a wealthy merchant city along the Adriatic Sea now located in Croatia. To keep the bubonic plague at bay, city leaders forced visitors to wait 40 days on a remote island before entering, deriving the term from quarantino, the Italian word for 40. Breaking these historical isolation mandates carried severe punishments, including torture or physical mutilation.
Source: npr.org
