IngentaConnect A 12-case outbreak of pharyngeal plague following the consumption...

Authors: Arbaji, A.¹; Kharabsheh, S.¹; Al-Azab, S.¹; Al-Kayed, M.¹; Amr, Z.S.²; Abu Baker, M.²; Chu, M.C.³

Source: Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, Volume 99, Number 8, December 2005 , pp. 789-793(5)

Abstract:

Between late January and early February 1997, an outbreak of plague, associated with cervical lymphadenopathy and fever, occurred in the Jordanian village of Azraq ad-Druze, which lies about 50 km west of the border with Saudi Arabia. The 12 cases who presented at hospital were initially assumed to have tularaemia, and all were successfully treated with gentamicin. When, however, their sera were tested for evidence of Yersinia pestis or Francisella tularensis infection (using haemagglutination, enzyme immuno-assays for specific IgM or the F1 antigen of Y. pestis, and micro-agglutination tests), all 12 were found to have anti-Y. pestis IgM. Three dogs shot near the Saudi Arabian border were also found seropositive for antibodies against Y. pestis. Eleven of the 12 patients reported that, 2–4 days before their symptoms appeared, they had eaten the meat cut from the carcass of the same camel, either raw (10 cases) or cooked (one case). All 12 patients were diagnosed as cases of pharyngeal plague (the first cases of plague reported in Jordan for more than 80 years), caused by Y. pestis that most had acquired when they ate raw meat from a camel that was infected with the pathogen.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1179/136485905X65161

Affiliations: 1: Ministry of Health, P.O. Box 86, Amman, Jordan 2: Department of Biological Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid, Jordan 3: Bacterial Zoonoses Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, P.O. Box 2087, Rampart Road, Foothills Campus, Fort Collins, CO 80522, U.S.A

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A 12-case outbreak of pharyngeal plague following the consumption of camel meat, in north–eastern Jordan