Patterns of Human Plague in Uganda, 2008–2016
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Abstract
Plague is a highly virulent fleaborne zoonosis that occurs throughout many parts of the world; most suspected human cases are reported from resource-poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa. During 2008–2016, a combination of active surveillance and laboratory testing in the plague-endemic West Nile region of Uganda yielded 255 suspected human plague cases; approximately one third were laboratory confirmed by bacterial culture or serology. Although the mortality rate was 7% among suspected cases, it was 26% among persons with laboratory-confirmed plague. Reports of an unusual number of dead rats in a patient’s village around the time of illness onset was significantly associated with laboratory confirmation of plague. This descriptive summary of human plague in Uganda highlights the episodic nature of the disease, as well as the potential that, even in endemic areas, illnesses of other etiologies might be being mistaken for plague
Description
Keywords
Patterns, Human Plague, Uganda, 2008–2016
Citation
Forrester, J. D., Apangu, T., Griffith, K., Acayo, S., Yockey, B., Kaggwa, J., ... & Mead, P. S. (2017). Patterns of human plague in Uganda, 2008–2016. Emerging infectious diseases, 23(9), 1517.DOI: https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2309.170789