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Abstract

The adventurous discovery of the bacterium of bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis), by Alexandre Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasato during the third pandemic in Hong-Kong (1894) is presented. The two young scientists met at the peaks of both a terrible epidemic and an amazing scientific conflict. The story takes place in a city devastated by the plague, in the framework of the French-British colonial struggles and a variety of personal ambitions. The role played by the Scots colonial physician Lowson, the scientific alliance between Britain, Japan and Germany, and their struggle with the Institute Pasteur and the French Academy of Sciences, provide the backdrop to this discovery. For most of the next 100 years, the conflict in the scientific community was to continue through a second round on the official nomenclature and the final taxonomy of the Yersinia pestis.

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Plague is one of mankind's greatest scourges, which has swept away millions of people over the centuries. The first available record of the occurrence of this calamity, in humans, is from the Bible, in 1000 bc, in the city of Ashdod. The first definitely identified pandemic originated in Egypt in ad 542 (the Justinian Plague) and is estimated to have caused 100 million deaths. The second one, lasting for three centuries and claiming over 25 million lives appeared in 1334 in China spreading to many spots on the globe. The third pandemic occurred in Europe from the fifteenth to eighteenth century. The current pandemic began around 1860, in the Chinese province Yunnan; it reached Hong Kong in 1894 killing 100 000 individuals. Within 20 years the disease spread from southern Chinese ports throughout the world resulting in more than 10 million deaths. Since the discovery of the causative agent in 1894, there have been remarkable advancements in immunoprophylaxis and chemoprophylaxis. However, the disease is still active in Africa, in Asia and in Americas and has been classified as a currently re-emerging disease. A 'Plague-free World' will probably remain a dream for an indefinite period.
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It is proposed that the name Yersinia pseudotuberculosis subsp. pestis, for the organism also known by the valid name Yersinia pestis, violates Principle 1. Subprinciple 2, of the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria and should be rejected.
Article
The first recorded experience Australia had of the genus Yersinia was the arrival in 1889 of a French expedition led by Pasteur's nephew, Dr. Adrien Loir. At that time Australia was in the grips of an epidemic of rabbits, and Loir's purpose was to eradicate the rabbits by means of fowl plague (Pasteurella multocida). Sadly, bureaucratic and political obstacles prevailed, and Loir was never granted permission to release his biological control agent. Alexander Yersin had been tempted to join Loir's expedition, but elected in the end to travel to Hong Kong, where he discovered the plague bacillus. Had he gone to Australia, we might not now be speaking of the genus Yersinia... Historically, Yersinia pestis has affected not only world history but literature as well. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the tragic denouement can be attributed directly to the consequences of the Great Plague. In times of plague, cities closed their gates to travellers, and houses their doors and windows. Thus Laurence's explanatory letter was prevented from reaching Romeo, who returned to take his life beside the drugged (but living) body of his beloved. Not only was the contemporary literature from which Shakespeare drew inspiration full of references to the plague, but he himself had experienced the social effects of the plague at first hand. The recent rejection of the name Y. pseudotuberculosis var. pestis in favour of Y. pestis is fitting, not simply on the grounds of preventing confusion - after all, Y. pseudotuberculosis can be an equally lethal pathogen. However, a review of the epidemiology for Y. pestis since the First Pandemic in the 6th Century AD lends support to Devignat's hypothesis that Y. pseudotuberculosis evolved from Y. pestis, rather than vice versa. This probably occurred in Europe shortly before the Second Pandemic, and the new mutant spread slowly through the European rodent population, immunising the carriers against plague. In other parts of the world which continued to be affected by plague, the rodent populations remained susceptible because they had not been immunised by exposure to Y. pseudotuberculosis. In some areas which have not been affected by plague, it is also possible that the native rodent populations have been immunised by Y. enterocolitica and its relatives. The plague, the first biological weapon, has killed more people than man's wars. It is our duty, as bacteriologists handling this pathogen, to refuse to allow our work to be used in modern warfare, to refuse to participate in any further warfare against humanity itself.
Article
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