Table 1. Inclusion criteria for literature review on transmission of plague from human corpses.

Research topic	Infectiousness of body fluids of living plague patients	Infections acquired from corpses and carcasses	Infectiousness of body fluids of corpses and carcasses
Study type	Descriptive (including surveillance data, case series, and case reports)	Descriptive (including case series and case reports)	Descriptive (including case series and case reports)
Participants	Persons who have laboratory-confirmed plague	Persons or animals that died of laboratory-confirmed plague	Persons or animals that died of laboratory-confirmed plague
Outcomes	New case of confirmed plague attributed to direct transmission from an infected human (i.e., human-to-human transmission)	New case of confirmed plague attributed to direct transmission from an infected corpse or carcass	New case of confirmed plague attributed to direct transmission from an infected corpse or carcass, with a specified period between the time of death of the plague victim and time of contact with corpse
			Isolation of Yersinia pestis by culture from body fluids from an infected corpse or carcass, with a specified period between the time of death of the plague victim and the time of Y. pestis identification
Exclusion criteria	None	Studies reporting only cases of plague attributed to consumption of infected meat, or cases transmitted by vectors such as fleas	Studies examining the persistence of Y. pestis DNA in corpses or carcasses that were previously buried, in the soil, or on environmental surfaces