The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses

A federal-state partnership that monitors for foodborne illnesses quietly scaled back its operations nearly two months ago

Neolithic bones reveal isolated Yersinia pestis infections, not pandemics

Since the catastrophic pandemics of the Middle Ages, one disease has almost proverbially symbolized contagion and death: the plague. It is now known that the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis has been present in Central and Northern Europe for more than 5,000 years. However, it is still uncertain whether it also led to pandemics and mass deaths in its early forms.

BugBitten An ancient disease has another vector hidden up your sleeves

Yersinia pestis can infect the Pawlowsky glands of human body lice and be transmitted by louse bite

Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, uses fleas and rodents as vectors for transmission. This study reports a new vector for Y. pestis, showing that it can infect the Pawlowsky glands of human body lice and be transmitted by louse bite.

Multiple Introductions of <em>Yersinia pestis</em> during Urban Pneumonic Plague Epidemic, Madagascar, 2017

Pneumonic Plague Epidemic, Madagascar, 2017

Genetic study offers little evidence of Black Death having selective impact on genetic variation in England

A team of archaeologists, geneticists and pathologists affiliated with a host of institutions across Europe, working with one colleague from the U.K. and another from the U.S., has found little evidence of the Black Death causing genetic variants to arise in affected populations.