Does the Plague Still Threaten Us?

Almeida, Alzira Maria Paiva de; Sobreira, Marise; Leal, Nilma Cintra; Tavares, Celso

doi:10.1590/0037-8682-0136-2019

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Unexpectedly after a long period of continuous activity and at a time of larger expansion when it reached several municipalities in the Chapada do Araripe, the plague suddenly disappeared in this focus since 1975. This disappearance was confirmed not only by the absence of human cases but also by the absence of the plague bacillus among the rodent hosts and flea vectors and a decreasing in positive sentinel/indicator animals through the bacteriological and serological surveillance activities [ 12 , 27 ]. The causes for this disappearance are not known.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The activities of the infection in these foci are independent in time and space [ 9 ]; after several successive outbreaks of varied sizes until the decade of 1980, cases in Brazil decreased and the last confirmed human case was in 2005 [ 12 , 13 ]. Despite its current quiescent state, we must remain vigilant and maintain rigorous epidemiological surveillance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal analysis of bubonic plague in Pernambuco, northeast of Brazil: Case study in the municipality of Exu

et al. 2021

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Along with other countries in America, plague reached Brazil through the sea routes during the third pandemic. A brief ports phase was followed by an urban phase that took place in smaller inland cities and finally, it attained the rural area and established several foci where the ecological conditions were suitable for its continued existence. However, the geographic dispersion of plague in Brazil is still poorly studied. To better understand the disease dynamics, we accessed satellite-based data to trace the spatial occurrence and distribution of human plague cases in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil and using the municipality of Exu as study case area. Along with the satellite data, a historical survey using the Plague Control Program files was applied to characterize the spatial and temporal dispersion of cases in the period of 1945–1976. Kernel density estimation, spatial and temporal clusters with statistical significance and maximum entropy modeling were used for spatial data analysis, by means of the spatial analysis software packages. The use of geostatistical tools allowed evidencing the shift of the infection from the urban to the wild-sylvatic areas and the reemergence of cases after a period of quiescence, independent of the reintroduction from other plague areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal analysis of bubonic plague in Pernambuco, northeast of Brazil: Case study in the municipality of Exu

et al. 2021

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“…The Cohen's Kappa test revealed high agreement rates for this protocol when compared to HA (n=288) and IgG-ELISA (n=487). Since human cases of plague have not been reported in Brazil since 2005, we were not able to estimate positive/negative predictive values [25].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

A new multi-species Protein A-ELISA assay for plague diagnosis in humans and other mammal hosts

Bezerra

Xavier

Almeida

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: The Hemagglutination assay (HA) is widely used in plague diagnosis, however, it has a subjective interpretation and demands high amounts of antigen and other immunobiological supplies. Conventional IgG-ELISA is limited by the need of specific conjugates for multiple plague hosts. Methods: Thus, we developed an ELISA Protein A-peroxidase method to detect anti-F1 antibodies across several species, including humans. To determine the cut-off and performance rates, HA results from 288 samples (81 rabbits, 64 humans, 66 rodents and 77 dogs) were used as reference. Results: Optimal conditions were found with 250ng/well of F1 and 1:500 serum dilution. Protein A-ELISA showed high repeatability and reproducibility. The positive/negative OD ratios were higher in Protein A-ELISA and there was no significant cross-reaction with other pathogenic yersiniae. The overall sensitivity/specificity, area under the curve and Kappa rates for Protein A-ELISA were 93.9/98.9%; 0.993 and 0.938, respectively. Similar results were observed in each species separately. There was a strong agreement between Protein A and IgG assays (kappa=0.973) in independent analysis (n=487). Conclusions: Altogether, the Protein A-ELISA showed high performance when compared both to HA and IgG-ELISA, with a polyvalent single protocol that requires reduced amounts of antigen and can be employed to any plague hosts.

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“…The establishment of administrative and sanitary devices for the «collective management» of epidemics, for their surveillance and prevention, was critical in the institutionalisation of public health (Fassin, 2000;Barroso, 2019;Lonappan, Golecha, & Balakrish Nair, 2020;Almeida, Sobreira, Leal, & Tavares, 2020). Until the end of the 18 th century, early 19 th century, public health, as a sociological reality, i.e., with its values, standards and institutions, was essentially limited to technical application and administrative practice: it was a matter of developing isolation, control, surveillance and sanitation measures, according to generally simple protocols, supported by more or less constraining devices.…”

Section: Collective Challenges Of Pestismentioning

confidence: 99%

Pestis: The Collective Challenges of Epidemics

Ferreira

Serpa

Ferraz

2021

Acad. J. Interdiscip. Stud.

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Currently, COVID-19 is perceived as an epidemic, a new «plague», referring to the matrix metaphor of the pestis expressed in the series contagion – death – fear – isolation. This article aims to understand the multiple collective challenges posed by plague epidemics. The analysis of these challenges may contribute to the reflection on several dimensions that shape the COVID-19 pandemic threat. Individuals interpret the different pasts aiming to solve the problems they face in the present. The collective challenges that the political and medical «management» of the plague place are shaped by circumstantial coalitions of diverse interests, enabling the recognition, demarcation, and legitimisation of actions regarding its public management and control, materialised in concrete health policies, such as the development of several specific devices (isolation, health cordons, lazarettos, quarantine), thus intervening in the configuration of «collective management» of epidemics. Received: 20 November 2020 / Accepted: 22 March 2021 / Published: 10 May 2021

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Does the Plague Still Threaten Us?

Cited by 8 publications

References 11 publications

Spatiotemporal analysis of bubonic plague in Pernambuco, northeast of Brazil: Case study in the municipality of Exu

Spatiotemporal analysis of bubonic plague in Pernambuco, northeast of Brazil: Case study in the municipality of Exu

A new multi-species Protein A-ELISA assay for plague diagnosis in humans and other mammal hosts

Pestis: The Collective Challenges of Epidemics

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