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( Yersinia pestis)
Yersinia pestis (Pasteurella pestis) is a Gram-negative bacillus bacterium belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. It is a facultative anaerobic bipolar-staining cell (giving it a safety pin appearance).[1] Human Y. pestis infection have three main forms, the well-known is bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plague.[2] All three forms have been responsible for high mortality rates in epidemics throughout human history, including the Black Death that accounted for the death of approximately one-third of the European population in 1347 to 1353. The genus Yersinia is Gram-negative, bipolar staining coccobacilli, and, similarly to other Enterobacteriaceae. The closest relative is the gastrointestinal pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, and more distantly Yersinia enterocolitica. Recently Yersinia pestis has gained attention as a possible biological warfare agent and the CDC as classified Y. pestis as category A pathogen requiring preparation for a possible terrorist attack. Three biovars of Y. pestis are known, each thought to correspond to one of the historical pandemics of bubonic plague.[5] Biovar Antiqua is thought to correspond to the Plague of Justinian; it is not known whether this biovar also corresponds to earlier, smaller epidemics of bubonic plague, or whether these were even truly bubonic plague.[6] Biovar Medievalis is thought to correspond to the Black Death. Biovar Orientalis is thought to correspond to the Third Pandemic and the majority of modern outbreaks of plague. Y. pestis was carried on rats' fleas.
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