My understanding is that the pneumonic form of plague is the primary
form of the disease when the bacterium is transmitted man to man in
aerosols.
Ted Snazelle
Department of Biological Sciences
Mississippi College
Clinton, MS 39058
>>> <jlh123 at mail.usask.ca> 12/30/96 07:35am >>>
In the book Man and Microbe the author in describing the history of the
plague states that cold weather caused the Y. pestis attack to shift from
the lymph nodes (the bubonic form) to the lungs (the pneumonic form
herby enabling it to be transmitted via aerosols. In my Medical
Microbiology class I learned that the pneumonic form is considered to be
the secondary stage of the infection but the professor was unable to
answer whether or not this occurs in all cases or just through some
external stimuli. He seemed to imply that it happened every time. Does
anyone know the answer?
