Yersinia pestis infectionoverview

Template:Yersinia Pestis Infection Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Overview

Yersinia Pestis Infection, also known as the Black Death or Plague is considered to be one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Although there were several competing theories as to the etiology of the Black Death, recent analysis of DNA from victims in northern and southern Europe indicates that the pathogen responsible was the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which causes the Bubonic plague, although these were different, previously unknown ancestral variants of those identified in the 20th century.