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Third Plague Pandemic
About Third Plague Pandemic
The Third Plague Pandemic began in Yunnan province, China, in 1855 and spread globally over decades, not ending until 1960. The pandemic reached Hong Kong in 1894, where Alexandre Yersin and Shibasaburo Kitasato independently identified the plague bacterium. The bacterium was long classified as Pasteurella pestis before being renamed Yersinia pestis in Yersins honour. The pandemic is estimated to have killed more than 12 million people in India and China alone. The disease spread through steamship routes to port cities worldwide, including San Francisco in 1900. The pandemic drove rat control programs in many cities. The development of plague vaccines by Haffkine and others occurred during this pandemic. Antibiotic treatment became available from the 1940s. Plague remains endemic in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, with hundreds of human cases reported to the WHO in most years. The Third Plague Pandemic was the last major bubonic plague pandemic, though limited outbreaks continue.
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