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The Black Death and Other Pandemics
Published in Scott M. Jackson, Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology, 2023
Perhaps this debate can be finally put to rest. In 2010, Yersinia DNA was discovered in the tooth sockets of the remains of fourteenth-century plague victims from mass graves all over Europe; they offered this as proof that Y. pestis was indeed the cause of the Black Death.49 Perhaps the rat and its flea played a limited role in the transmission of the Black Death. Perhaps other vectors like the human flea (Pulex irritans) or the body louse (Pediculus humanus) actually transmitted the disease.50 Perhaps Y. pestis was more virulent and deadlier in the fourteenth century. Perhaps comparing the Second and Third Pandemics is misguided when considering the contextual differences of individual and public health, hygiene, nutrition, medicine, and living conditions of periods that are 500 years apart in time.
Inflammatory, Hypersensitivity and Immune Lung Diseases, including Parasitic Diseases.
Published in Fred W Wright, Radiology of the Chest and Related Conditions, 2022
Outbreaks of plague were particularly seen in cool autumns after hot summers (or cool periods after unusually hot winters), probably when rats entered buildings, and people tended to congregate in many with thatch roofs and straw covered floors which the rat fleas could infest, as they deserted dying or dead rats. In Europe the disease was spread from port to port by black rats in ships and then entered the local rodent population. The last UK outbreak was in Suffolk (mainly in farming people) from 1910 to 1918 and was probably due to infected rats in ships from the Far East reaching Ipswich). Fortunately the human flea (Pulex irritans) is a poor transmitter of plague. The virulence of the organism can also change, as happened in the late 17th century.
Biting insect and tick allergens
Published in Richard F. Lockey, Dennis K. Ledford, Allergens and Allergen Immunotherapy, 2020
Donald R. Hoffman, Jennifer E. Fergeson
The fleas are almost all parasitic insects, with 74% of species associated with rodent hosts and about 6% with avian hosts. The species associated with man are members of the superfamily Pulicoidea, family Pulicidae. The most common are the dog and cat fleas, Ctenocephalides canis and Ctenocephalides felis felis. Pulex irritans, a parasite of carnivores, is sometimes called the human flea. Fleas of the genus Tunga are found in Central and South America.
Infectious diseases among Ethiopian immigrants in Israel: a descriptive literature review
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2021
Yulia Treister-Goltzman, Ali Alhoashle, Roni Peleg
Several cases of skin Leishmaniasis [4] and one case of severe, treatment-resistant visceral Leishmaniasis in an EI HIV patient was reported [70]. The positivity rate for Toxoplasma antibodies’ among EI from Operation Solomon (1991) was 34%. This rate was significant compared to native Israeli Jews (about 23%) and significantly lower than Arabs from the same geographical region (about 56%). The seroconversion rate was high in the age period of fertility (20–39 years) at 1% per year, which indicates a need for toxoplasma screening in pregnant women in this ethnic population [71]. Similarly, there was a very high rate of ectoparasites among EI at about 65% who suffered from head lice, with the highest rate among 6–11-year-old children, about 39% had body lice, about 10% had scabies mite, and about 4% had human flea [72].