ABSTRACT
The lack of genetic diversity in the North America rat-borne Y. pestis strain is due to plague's introduction into North America. Highly discriminatory anti-plague measures enacted by the British in Bombay in 1896 most certainly contributed to the rise in Indian nationalism. The eruption of plague in San Francisco further pathogenized the Chinese living there and contributed to persistent anti-Asian rhetoric and prejudice in the United States. The eruption of bubonic plague in South Africa certainly appears to have influenced the formulation of urban native policy in the Cape Colony between 1900 and 1909. Complicating attempts to control plague in Madagascar is that three flea species (such as Xenopsylla cheopis–the oriental rat flea, Synopsyllus fonquerniei–an endemic flea found above 800 m, and Pulex irritans–the human flea) are known to facilitate domestic human-to-human transmission of plague.
