RARE DISEASERESEARCH ATLAS
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ORPHA:707

Plague

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Y. pestis infection · Yersinia pestis infection

Publications

76,030

Trials

12

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,194

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

2/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare zoonotic disease characterized by life-threatening, highly contagious and rapidly progressing infection caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis, affecting rodents, and transmitted to human accidentally. It manifests differently depending on the route of infection. Bubonic plague results from the bite of an infected rodent flea. Pneumonic plague, less frequent but more dangerous, may arise through inhalation of infectious droplets or spread of bubonic plague to the lungs. Septicemic plague occurs from dissemination into the bloodstream, either as a primary infection or as a complication of bubonic or pneumonic forms, leading to disseminated intravascular coagulation, necrosis, and multi-organ failure.

How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (1)

plague

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

2/6 stages with a signal

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    76,030 matched papers (27,593 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO

  4. Animal modelNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance

  5. Orphan designationNot checked

    FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    12 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (1 recruiting in sample)

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

Not enriched in this build.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

76,030

76,030 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.

76,030 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).

27,593 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 76,030 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,194

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Wang X16 papers · 2026

    National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Rajerison M11 papers · 2026

    Unité Peste, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Madagascar.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Wu Y8 papers · 2026

    State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Yang Q8 papers · 2026

    Research Center of Avian Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, China; Engineering Research Center of Southwest Animal Disease Prevention and Control Technology, Ministry of Education of the PR China, Chengdu 611130, China; Agricultural Animal Diseases and Veterinary Public Health Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 611130, China; International Joint Research Center for Animal Disease Prevention and Control of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 611130, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Zhang X8 papers · 2026

    School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Ramasindrazana B7 papers · 2026

    Unité Peste, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Madagascar.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Zhang L7 papers · 2026

    Research Center of Avian Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Immunology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; Agricultural Animal Diseases and Veterinary Public Health Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; Engineering Research Center of Southwest Animal Disease Prevention and Control Technology, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Zhang S7 papers · 2026

    Research Center of Avian Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, China; Engineering Research Center of Southwest Animal Disease Prevention and Control Technology, Ministry of Education of the PR China, Chengdu 611130, China; Agricultural Animal Diseases and Veterinary Public Health Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 611130, China; International Joint Research Center for Animal Disease Prevention and Control of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 611130, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Abdel Z6 papers · 2026

    M. Aikimbayev's National Scientific Center for Especially Dangerous Infections, 14 Zhakhanger St., Almaty A35P0K3, Kazakhstan.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Abdeliyev B6 papers · 2026

    M. Aikimbayev's National Scientific Center for Especially Dangerous Infections, 14 Zhakhanger St., Almaty A35P0K3, Kazakhstan.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

12

interventional trials for this specific condition

12 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 1 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 27 July 2026

12 interventional trials — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 92.5th percentile).

low confidence · 92.5th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

12 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

Observational and natural-history studies

2 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

Recruiting or not-yet-recruiting

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Where to find support

We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

"Plague" OR "Y. pestis infection" OR "Yersinia pestis infection"

Run this search on Europe PMC

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"Plague" OR "Y. pestis infection" OR "Yersinia pestis infection"

Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 12 interventional · 2 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is short or not clearly distinctive
  • No synonyms dropped by stoplist
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
  • Publication count (76030) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-26T14:58:48.942Z