The Black Death: Plague That Killed Millions Can Rise From The Dead

LONDON – Two of the mostdevastating outbreaks of plague inhistory, each of which killed morethan half the population ofEurope, were caused by differentstrains of the same infectiousagent, a study has revealed.The Justinian Plague of the 6thCentury AD, which is creditedwith leading to the final demise ofthe Roman Empire, and the BlackDeath of the 14th Century, wereboth caused by the independentemergence of the plague bacteriumfrom its natural host species,the black rat, scientists said.An analysis of bacterial DNAextracted from the teeth of twoplague victims who died in theearly 6th Century in present-dayBavaria, Germany, has shown thatthey were infected with the bacteriumYersinia pestis, the same plagueagent known to have caused theBlack Death 800 years later.However, a detailed comparison ofthe bacteria’s DNA sequences hasrevealed that the two outbreakswere quite independent of oneanother. Each pandemic was theresult of different Yersinia strains,indicating the independent emergencefrom the black rat on twoseparate occasions, the researcherssaid. Although the strain behindthe Justinian Plague died out completely,the strain that caused theBlack Death probably re-emergeda few centuries later to cause theso-called Third Plague pandemicwhich began in the mid-19thCentury in China and went on tokill about 12 million people inChina and India alone, although itdid not travel to Europe.The scientists behind the study,published in the journal TheLancet Infectious Diseases,warned that the findings suggestthere is a possibility of anotherpandemic strain of plague toemerge from the existing reservoirof Yersinia bacteria living in thecurrent rodent population.”The key point here is that this bugcan re-emerge in new forms inhumans and can have a tremendousimpact on human mortality.It’s done it three times in the pastand we should be monitoring it forthe future,” said Hendrik Poinar,director of the Ancient DNACentre at Canada’s McMasterUniversity in Hamilton, Ontario.The Justinian Plague, named afterthe Roman emperor who died ofit, probably began in Asia but firstcame to prominence when it sweptthrough the eastern Roman capitalof Constantinople.