We know that the plague today stems from the bacteria Yersinia Pestis. It has been mostly controlled in the United States, now only occurring in the rural regions of the US (southwest and along the Pacific coast). The plague is known to mostly affect animals, but will sometimes make the interspecies leap and infect humans, causing normally small outbreaks, now called epizootic outbreaks. Rarely it gets out of hand, much like what is happening in Madagascar now. The shock to most of these scientists is that the plague has not mutated very much compared to the same bacteria that caused the Black Death in the 14^th century.

Plague transmission stems mainly from rodents. The transmission requires a vector, which in the case of Black Death are typically fleas that jump from rodents to humans. Sometimes, the fleas will jump to other species of animals before coming around to humans, which causes slight mutations and will have a different effect on the human body. Other types of transmission include coming into contact with fluids associated with the plague, mainly butchered animals that had plague. The butchers get it, and then eventually begin to spread it among the rest of the town. In order to spread it through town, many people must have contact with plague, or through infectious droplets. Pneumonic plague is not very common anymore, but this is the only way that plague can be transmitted among humans.

The Plague in Madagascar is hugely caused to the pneumonic plague infecting humans.   Madagascar is still a developing country, which is why pneumonic plague is able to spread so easy. Many don’t know what they have, which allows for the spread to continue. Madagascar is also a very traditional country, with much of the culture dealing with the dead. In many instances, they consult with the dead, so unburying someone who died of plague will also help the transmission of plague among families. And due to knowing if they bring the sick to the hospital, many will not bring their relatives to the hospital in fear of not being allowed to bury their family members.