Laboratory studies on Yersinia pestis during the 1991 outbreak of plague in Lushoto, Tanzania
Lyamuya, E.F.; Nyanda, P.; Mohammedali, H.; Mhalu, F.S.
Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 95(5): 335-338
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-5304 PMID: 1404556 Document Number: 392172
Thirty-one specimens from patients involved in an outbreak of plaque were cultured. Suspicious isolates were presumptively identified by colonial characteristics, simple stains and by API 20E, and confirmed by inoculation into white mice. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was also done. The isolation rate of Yersinia pestis was 22.6%. All isolates were uniformly sensitive to tetracycline, streptomycin, sulphadimidine and chloramphenicol; moderately sensitive to erythromycin, and resistant to trimethoprim. Y. pestis was confirmed as a cause of the epidemic and sensitivity of Y. pestis to the four antimicrobial agents used was demonstrated. It is recommended that laboratories in zonal hospitals serving areas with plaque foci should be provided with facilities for isolation and preliminary identification of Y. pestis in order to speed up diagnosis of plague outbreaks. Confirmation of the identity, biotyping and antibiotic susceptibility testing should be undertaken in a well established national reference laboratory. This appears to be the first publication on bacteriological investigation of human plague in Tanzania.