<P> The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900--1904, followed by another outbreak in 1907--1908 . </P> <P> Modern treatment methods include insecticides, the use of antibiotics, and a plague vaccine . The plague bacterium could develop drug resistance and again become a major health threat . One case of a drug - resistant form of the bacterium was found in Madagascar in 1995 . A further outbreak in Madagascar was reported in November 2014 . In October 2017 the deadliest outbreak of the plague in modern times hit Madagascar, killing 170 people and infecting thousands . </P> <P> The phrase "black death" (mors nigra) was used in 1350 by Simon de Covino or Couvin, a Belgian astronomer, who wrote the poem "On the Judgment of the Sun at a Feast of Saturn" (De judicio Solis in convivio Saturni), which attributes the plague to a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn . In 1908, Gasquet claimed that use of the name atra mors for the 14th - century epidemic first appeared in a 1631 book on Danish history by J. I. Pontanus: "Commonly and from its effects, they called it the black death" (Vulgo & ab effectu atram mortem vocatibant). The name spread through Scandinavia and then Germany, gradually becoming attached to the mid 14th - century epidemic as a proper name . However, atra mors is used to refer to a pestilential fever (febris pestilentialis) already in the 12th - century On the Signs and Symptoms of Diseases (Latin: De signis et sinthomatibus egritudinum) by French physician Gilles de Corbeil . In England, the phrase "Black Death" is first used to refer to the 14th - century epidemic in 1823 . Writers contemporary with the plague described the event as "great plague" or "great pestilence". </P>

The cause of the black death in europe