TY - JOUR AU - Forrester, Joseph AU - Apangu, Titus AU - Griffith, Kevin AU - Acayo, Sarah AU - Yockey, Brook AU - Kaggwa, John AU - Kugeler, Kiersten AU - Schriefer, Martin AU - Sexton, Christopher AU - Ben Beard, C. AU - Candini, Gordian AU - Abaru, Janet AU - Candia, Bosco AU - Okoth, Jimmy Felix AU - Apio, Harriet AU - Nolex, Lawrence AU - Ezama, Geoffrey AU - Okello, Robert AU - Atiku, Linda AU - Mpanga, Joseph AU - Mead, Paul T1 - Patterns of Human Plague in Uganda, 2008–2016 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2017 VL - 23 IS - 9 SP - 1517 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Plague is a highly virulent fleaborne zoonosis that occurs throughout many parts of the world; most suspected human cases are reported from resource-poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa. During 2008–2016, a combination of active surveillance and laboratory testing in the plague-endemic West Nile region of Uganda yielded 255 suspected human plague cases; approximately one third were laboratory confirmed by bacterial culture or serology. Although the mortality rate was 7% among suspected cases, it was 26% among persons with laboratory-confirmed plague. Reports of an unusual number of dead rats in a patient’s village around the time of illness onset was significantly associated with laboratory confirmation of plague. This descriptive summary of human plague in Uganda highlights the episodic nature of the disease, as well as the potential that, even in endemic areas, illnesses of other etiologies might be being mistaken for plague. KW - plague KW - Yersinia pestis KW - bubonic plague KW - pneumonic plague KW - Africa KW - Uganda KW - West Nile KW - zoonoses KW - bacteria KW - vector-borne infections KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid2309.170789 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/9/17-0789_article ER - End of Reference