54 posts · 42,707 views
Contagions is place to collect some thoughts on history, infectious disease and science in general. My primary interests are in the history of plague, and the impact of malaria, smallpox, and yellow fever on the Americas.
Michelle Ziegler
54 posts
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- March 1, 2011
- 07:39 AM
- 1,611 views
Cholera’s Chain of Infection
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Cholera is the pandemic that just won’t go away. Worse yet, it preys on us when we are at our most vulnerable, after a natural or man-made disaster. We know how to prevent it but in times of natural disaster or in areas where infrastructure is inadequate, those conditions can be hard to maintain. A [...]... Read more »
Faruque SM, Albert MJ, & Mekalanos JJ. (1998) Epidemiology, genetics, and ecology of toxigenic Vibrio cholerae. Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR, 62(4), 1301-14. PMID: 9841673
Faruque SM, Biswas K, Udden SM, Ahmad QS, Sack DA, Nair GB, & Mekalanos JJ. (2006) Transmissibility of cholera: in vivo-formed biofilms and their relationship to infectivity and persistence in the environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(16), 6350-5. PMID: 16601099
Koelle, K., Pascual, M., & Yunus, M. (2005) Pathogen adaptation to seasonal forcing and climate change. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1566), 971-977. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.3043
Nelson EJ, Harris JB, Morris JG Jr, Calderwood SB, & Camilli A. (2009) Cholera transmission: the host, pathogen and bacteriophage dynamic. Nature reviews. Microbiology, 7(10), 693-702. PMID: 19756008
- February 21, 2011
- 01:46 AM
- 1,419 views
Clonal origins of Haiti’s Cholera epidemic
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Haiti had been free of cholera for 50 years when the earthquake struck in January 2010. The destruction of Haiti’s infrastructure by the earthquake made it vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks but it was hoped that cholera would pass it by. As we all know by now, this unfortunately has not the case. Cholera has [...]... Read more »
Afsar Ali, Yuansha Chen, Judith A. Johnson, Edsel Redden, Yfto Mayette, Mohammed H. Rashid, O. Colin Stine, and J. Glenn Morris, Jr. (2011) Recent Clonal Origin of Cholera in Haiti. Emerging Infectious Disease, 17(4 -- April). info:/10.3201/eid1704.101973
Enserink M. (2011) Epidemiology. Despite sensitivities, scientists seek to solve Haiti's cholera riddle. Science (New York, N.Y.), 331(6016), 388-9. PMID: 21273460
- April 9, 2011
- 05:25 AM
- 1,416 views
Detecting pathogens in medieval Venice
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Medieval Venice was a trading empire, one of the busiest ports of the late medieval world. As a hub of commerce waves of plague visited and revisited Venice in 1348, 1462, 1485, 1506, 1575-1577, and 1630-1632 with the last two producing mortality rates around 30% of the population (Tran et al, 2011). As we all [...]... Read more »
Tran TN, Signoli M, Fozzati L, Aboudharam G, Raoult D, & Drancourt M. (2011) High throughput, multiplexed pathogen detection authenticates plague waves in medieval venice, Italy. PloS one, 6(3). PMID: 21423736
Fournier PE, Ndihokubwayo JB, Guidran J, Kelly PJ, & Raoult D. (2002) Human pathogens in body and head lice. Emerging infectious diseases, 8(12), 1515-8. PMID: 12498677
Foucault C, Brouqui P, & Raoult D. (2006) Bartonella quintana characteristics and clinical management. Emerging infectious diseases, 12(2), 217-23. PMID: 16494745
- June 21, 2011
- 12:30 PM
- 1,386 views
Lice, Ancient DNA and Napoleon's Grand Army
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Life in Napoleon’s Grand Army wasn’t always so grand. The Russian campaign was a disaster, recently most tangibly manifest in the mass grave found at Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2001. Local records suggested that the remains belonged to Napoleon’s soldiers who paused at Vilnius during their retreat from Moscow in 1812. The densely packed bodies were buried at the same time leaving behind buttons, buckles and gear of 40 regiments of Napoleon’s army. The initial trench revealed ........ Read more »
Raoult D, Dutour O, Houhamdi L, Jankauskas R, Fournier PE, Ardagna Y, Drancourt M, Signoli M, La VD, Macia Y.... (2006) Evidence for louse-transmitted diseases in soldiers of Napoleon's Grand Army in Vilnius. The Journal of infectious diseases, 193(1), 112-20. PMID: 16323139
- June 6, 2011
- 06:00 AM
- 1,369 views
Trench Fever and Plague in 14th Century France
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
The Marseille plague group has been suggesting for some time now that human lice could be a major vector of medieval plague. To test their hypothesis the group devised a multiplex PCR screening method to rapidly screen many aDNA samples for seven pathogens that could cause medieval epidemics, including relapsing fever and trench fever transmitted by human lice. ... Read more »
Tran TN, Forestier CL, Drancourt M, Raoult D, & Aboudharam G. (2011) Brief communication: Co-detection of Bartonella quintana and Yersinia pestis in an 11th-15th burial site in Bondy, France. American journal of physical anthropology. PMID: 21541920
Tran TN, Signoli M, Fozzati L, Aboudharam G, Raoult D, & Drancourt M. (2011) High throughput, multiplexed pathogen detection authenticates plague waves in medieval venice, Italy. PloS one, 6(3). PMID: 21423736
Ayyadurai S, Sebbane F, Raoult D, & Drancourt M. (2010) Body lice, yersinia pestis orientalis, and black death. Emerging infectious diseases, 16(5), 892-3. PMID: 20409400
- April 23, 2011
- 01:00 AM
- 1,350 views
A Plague Crypt from Late Medieval Bavaria
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
St Leonard Catholic Church in Machnung-Pichl, near Ingolstadt Bavaria, Germany held a secret for many years. Renovations to the church back in 1984 found a mass burial site under the sacristy, 75 human skeletons stacked like lasagna in four layers with a little dirt between each layer (Wiechmann, Harbeck, & Grupe, 2010). The design of the site is a little unclear. They say it was not a dug pit and that it can only be dated to 1200 to 1500 CE by the Gothic design of surrounding building structure........ Read more »
Wiechmann I, Harbeck M, & Grupe G. (2010) Yersinia pestis DNA sequences in late medieval skeletal finds, Bavaria. Emerging infectious diseases, 16(11), 1806-7. PMID: 21029555
- August 12, 2011
- 12:02 AM
- 1,289 views
Ancient Remnants: Biomolecules in Paleomicrobiology
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Ancient DNA is not the only method of detecting and identifying ancient pathogens. Survival challenges for ancient DNA place very real limitations on its usefulness and sensitivity as a detection method. The main advantage of aDNA is that it can be genotyped to compare with modern species. For archaeological purposes, other biomolecules may be detected [...]... Read more »
Tran TN, Aboudharam G, Raoult D, & Drancourt M. (2011) Beyond ancient microbial DNA: nonnucleotidic biomolecules for paleomicrobiology. BioTechniques, 50(6), 370-80. PMID: 21781037
Pusch CM, Rahalison L, Blin N, Nicholson GJ, & Czarnetzki A. (2004) Yersinial F1 antigen and the cause of Black Death. The Lancet infectious diseases, 4(8), 484-5. PMID: 15288817
Nelson ML, Dinardo A, Hochberg J, & Armelagos GJ. (2010) Brief communication: Mass spectroscopic characterization of tetracycline in the skeletal remains of an ancient population from Sudanese Nubia 350-550 CE. American journal of physical anthropology, 143(1), 151-4. PMID: 20564518
- March 19, 2011
- 08:18 AM
- 1,283 views
Famine and Epidemic Anthrax, Saint-Domingue (Haiti), 1770
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Earthquakes have brought devastation on the Port-au-Prince region many times in the last 300 years. The 1770 earthquake was stronger and relatively as destructive as the 2010 quake (Ker, 2010). It also was centered near Port-au-Prince and to the west of the city. Ship captain accounts of the earthquake in the Boston Evening-Post from 9 [...]... Read more »
Morens DM. (2002) Epidemic anthrax in the eighteenth century, the Americas. Emerging infectious diseases, 8(10), 1160-2. PMID: 12396933
Morens DM. (2003) Characterizing a "new" disease: epizootic and epidemic anthrax, 1769-1780. American journal of public health, 93(6), 886-93. PMID: 12773345
- June 29, 2011
- 07:00 AM
- 1,258 views
Old Germs, or Paleomicrobiology
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
This will be the first in a series of posts looking at the technical and practical aspects of studying ancient pathogens, or paleomicrobiology. First let’s look at why its worth spending time, money and a lot of creativity on old germs. There are many reasons why directly studying ancient microbes is worthwhile. From a historical [...]... Read more »
Drancourt, M., & Raoult, D. (2005) Palaeomicrobiology: current issues and perspectives. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 3(1), 23-35. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro1063
Furuse Y, Suzuki A, & Oshitani H. (2010) Origin of measles virus: divergence from rinderpest virus between the 11th and 12th centuries. Virology journal, 52. PMID: 20202190
Nelson, M., Dinardo, A., Hochberg, J., & Armelagos, G. (2010) Brief communication: Mass spectroscopic characterization of tetracycline in the skeletal remains of an ancient population from Sudanese Nubia 350-550 CE. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21340
- July 4, 2011
- 03:09 PM
- 1,242 views
Trench Fever in German Mass Burial
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Trench fever seems to be all the rage these days in paleomicrobiology. It seems as though every time Bartonella quintana is added to a panel of pathogens for aDNA screening its found at some level. So far its been found in in a tooth from 4000 before present, in late medieval Venice, 14th century France, [...]... Read more »
Grumbkow, P., Zipp, A., Seidenberg, V., Fehren-Schmitz, L., Kempf, V., Groß, U., & Hummel, S. (2011) Brief communication: Evidence of Bartonella quintana infections in skeletons of a historical mass grave in Kassel, Germany. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21551
- August 21, 2011
- 07:00 AM
- 1,206 views
When Anthrax first came to North America
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
When pathogens arrived in the Americas is important for understanding the demographic history and biogeography of humans, animals and microbes of the Western Hemisphere. There have been two major periods of human migration to this hemisphere: across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia during the last Ice Age and the arrival of Christopher Columbus in [...]... Read more »
Kenefic LJ, Pearson T, Okinaka RT, Schupp JM, Wagner DM, Hoffmaster AR, Trim CB, Chung WK, Beaudry JA, Jiang L.... (2009) Pre-Columbian origins for North American anthrax. PloS one, 4(3). PMID: 19283072
Keim PS, & Wagner DM. (2009) Humans and evolutionary and ecological forces shaped the phylogeography of recently emerged diseases. Nature reviews. Microbiology, 7(11), 813-21. PMID: 19820723
- September 3, 2011
- 04:34 PM
- 1,184 views
DNA of the Black Death at East Smithfield, London
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
It seems as though every couple of months a new paper is published reporting Yersinia pestis DNA from ancient remains. This week brought the latest installment from London’s East Smithfield Black Death cemetery. This cemetery holds a special place in the scientific investigations of the Black Death because it is so well documented as being [...]... Read more »
Schuenemann, V., Bos, K., DeWitte, S., Schmedes, S., Jamieson, J., Mittnik, A., Forrest, S., Coombes, B., Wood, J., Earn, D.... (2011) PNAS Plus: Targeted enrichment of ancient pathogens yielding the pPCP1 plasmid of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1105107108
- September 5, 2011
- 01:53 PM
- 1,166 views
Cradle of Cholera’s Seventh Pandemic Found
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Cholera is a disease of seemingly endless fascination to epidemiologists for good reason. Vibrio cholerae emerged on a global stage in the 19th century just in time for the beginnings of modern medicine to grapple with it and for its transmission to prove the worth of epidemiological work. Although we understand its treatment and transmission [...]... Read more »
Safa, A., Nair, G., & Kong, R. (2010) Evolution of new variants of Vibrio cholerae O1. Trends in Microbiology, 18(1), 46-54. DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2009.10.003
- August 3, 2011
- 01:56 PM
- 1,070 views
Hunting Pathogens in Siberian Permafrost Graves
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
The Yakut community of Eastern Siberia has gained some attention from anthropologists because it culturally stands out from other Siberian populations. Their Turkic language, unique burial practices, and horse-breeding culture is not native to Siberia. Recent genetic analysis of 58 bodies preserved in permafrost from the last five centuries and 166 current members of the [...]... Read more »
Thèves, C., Senescau, A., Vanin, S., Keyser, C., Ricaut, F., Alekseev, A., Dabernat, H., Ludes, B., Fabre, R., & Crubézy, E. (2011) Molecular Identification of Bacteria by Total Sequence Screening: Determining the Cause of Death in Ancient Human Subjects. PLoS ONE, 6(7). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021733
Crubézy E, Amory S, Keyser C, Bouakaze C, Bodner M, Gibert M, Röck A, Parson W, Alexeev A, & Ludes B. (2010) Human evolution in Siberia: from frozen bodies to ancient DNA. BMC evolutionary biology, 25. PMID: 20100333
- September 3, 2010
- 05:00 AM
- 1,061 views
Plague among the nuts
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
David Woods was looking at the early Irish chronicles and he noticed something very odd. There are clusters of entries recording large mast crops. Mast? In Ireland, that would be mostly acorns.. In these sparse annals that normally only record battles, deaths, and other major events, why record large acorn falls? The only typical use [...]... Read more »
David Woods. (2003) Acorns, the Plague, and the 'Iona Chronicle'. Peritia, 495-502. info:/
- January 17, 2011
- 12:20 AM
- 1,041 views
Plague DNA from Late Antique Bavaria
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
The first plague pandemic was not recorded in Bavaria, or anywhere in the Germanic territory that I am aware of. The grave was not a typical ‘plague pit’. It was a rich grave of an adult woman and a young girl (individuals 166 and 167) from a cemetery in Aschheim, Bavaria. With no visible signs [...]... Read more »
Wiechmann I, & Grupe G. (2005) Detection of Yersinia pestis DNA in two early medieval skeletal finds from Aschheim (Upper Bavaria, 6th century A.D.). American journal of physical anthropology, 126(1), 48-55. PMID: 15386257
Bianucci, R., Rahalison, L., Massa, E., Peluso, A., Ferroglio, E., & Signoli, M. (2008) Technical note: A rapid diagnostic test detects plague in ancient human remains: An example of the interaction between archeological and biological approaches (southeastern France, 16th–18th centuries). American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 136(3), 361-367. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20818
Pusch CM, Rahalison L, Blin N, Nicholson GJ, & Czarnetzki A. (2004) Yersinial F1 antigen and the cause of Black Death. The Lancet infectious diseases, 4(8), 484-5. PMID: 15288817
- December 31, 2010
- 05:54 PM
- 1,026 views
Pandemic Influenza: 1510 – 2010
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
My first clue on the existence of specific influenza pandemics before 1918 came a few years ago while reading some local newspapers on the Spanish Flu itself. The papers were warning people that this was not an ordinary flu year, it would be like 1893! The papers referred to 1893 in the same way that [...]... Read more »
Morens, D., Taubenberger, J., Folkers, G., & Fauci, A. (2010) Pandemic Influenza’s 500th Anniversary. Clinical Infectious Diseases. DOI: 10.1086/657429
Morens DM, & Taubenberger JK. (2010) An avian outbreak associated with panzootic equine influenza in 1872: an early example of highly pathogenic avian influenza?. Influenza and other respiratory viruses, 4(6), 373-7. PMID: 20958931
Morens DM, North M, & Taubenberger JK. (2010) Eyewitness accounts of the 1510 influenza pandemic in Europe. Lancet, 376(9756), 1894-5. PMID: 21155080
- February 6, 2011
- 12:40 AM
- 1,004 views
Insights into the pathogenesis of the Spanish Flu
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
One of the enduring mysteries of influenza is why the 1918 H1N1 influenza, better known as the Spanish Flu, was so unusually deadly. The 2009 H1N1 influenza was certainly capable of creating a pandemic but was not nearly as deadly. Granted most of the fatalities in 1918 had bacterial pneumonia that could probably have been [...]... Read more »
Watanabe, T., & Kawaoka, Y. (2011) Pathogenesis of the 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus. PLoS Pathogens, 7(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1001218
- December 27, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 982 views
Defining pandemic
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
Defining a pandemic is not an easy thing to do. It turns out that there has never really been much consensus about what constitutes a pandemic. The term pandemic has been used almost interchangeably with epidemic since the beginning of its usage. In the midst of responding to last year’s H1N1 influenza outbreak public health [...]... Read more »
Morens, D., Folkers, G., & Fauci, A. (2009) What Is a Pandemic?. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 200(7), 1018-1021. DOI: 10.1086/644537
- January 23, 2011
- 12:28 AM
- 980 views
Uganda’s 2006 Plague Outbreak
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
People are sometimes surprised to learn that the plague still exists today. They ask me why they have never heard about it in the news. Well, it is occasionally in the news for a day and then we go on to the next crisis. Today plague outbreaks occur in parts of the world that don’t [...]... Read more »
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2009) Bubonic and pneumonic plague - Uganda, 2006. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 58(28), 778-81. PMID: 19629028
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