RT NewsScientists have reconstructed the genome of the first recorded bubonic plague and compared it to two later pandemics. New sophisticated strains of the disease that killed millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages could break out in future, they warn.
Researchers have managed to extract the DNA from the teeth of two victims of the Plague of Justinian, a pandemic that swept through the Byzantine Empire in AD 541-542, found in an early medieval cemetery in German Bavaria, according to a study published Tuesday by The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The Plague of Justinian is believed to have wiped out up to half the world’s known population at the time. The new research clearly links the Plague of Justinian with the Black Death bubonic plague, which was spread by rats in the 14th to 17th centuries, and a later pandemic in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The research shows that what caused all three pandemics was the same Yersina pestis (Y pestis) bacterium. However, the strains of the first pandemic are sufficiently different from those of the later pandemics to prompt a warning from scientists, who believe that the same bacteria with different DNA lineages is a worrying sign.
“These results show that rodent species worldwide represent important reservoirs for the repeated emergence of diverse lineages of Y pestis into human populations,” the study concludes.
Hendrik Poinar, director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Canada, who led the new research, believes scientists have to keep an eye on plague in rodent populations – the disease’s major carriers – to be able to avert future human outbreaks.
The cemetery in Bavaria, Germany (A). The skeleton of a victim of the Plague of Justinian (C). Objects (E) from the grave (B) that helped scientists to estimate the plague victim’s death as occurring between 525 AD and 550 AD. A tooth from which the genome of the plague was extracted (D). (Image from thelancet.com)
While modern-day antibiotics are able to stop currently known strains of plague, the researcher has not ruled out the possibility for potentially dangerous mutations. If there ever emerges an airborne version, the plague of that type could kill people within 24 hours of being infected, Poinar warned.
“If we happen to see a massive die-off of rodents somewhere with [the plague], then it would become alarming,” the scientist told AP.
The warning was echoed by Tom Gilbert, a professor at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, who wrote an accompanying commentary for the study.
“What this shows is that the plague jumped into humans on several different occasions and has gone on a rampage,” he said. “That shows the jump is not that difficult to make and wasn’t a wild fluke.”
Plague, one of the world’s oldest known diseases, still remains endemic in mostly tropical and subtropical areas, according to the World Health Organization. A disease of rodents, it’s spread among them by fleas. Around 2,000 people a year get affected globally.
When rapidly diagnosed and promptly treated, plague may be successfully treated, reducing mortality rate from 60 to less than 15 percent, the WHO says.
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what assholes…..
“Scientists have reconstructed”…..
they are playing with fire at the expense of world population…..
Stupidity is all around us.
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I agree George, and to go a step further, “If there ever emerges an airborne version, the plague of that type could kill people within 24 hours of being infected”
This virus is no doubt in the hands of the military already, who are weaponizing the hell out of it as we speak.
Corporations, government and military, the perfect trio to kill us all.
Hi FarmerDave,
Your Comment:
“This virus is no doubt in the hands of the military already, who are weaponizing the hell out of it as we speak.”
Response:
That’s affirmative.
JD – US Marines – Right now,.. what they are developing is the innoculation that will be administered to the “chosen ones”, the rich elite that have a reserved seat on the Ark,…. and then,.. time for a world wide pandemic,.. don’t you think?
“While modern-day antibiotics are able to stop currently known strains of plague, the researcher has not ruled out the possibility for potentially dangerous mutations.”
Sounds like the bioweapon labs in Ft Detrick have been up to their usual evil deeds and we’re being warned of what may be in coming chemtrails. B@stards.
Not something they should be playing around with! Take the matches away from the children!!!
. . .
“Scientists have reconstructed the genome of the first recorded bubonic plague and compared it to two later pandemics. New sophisticated strains of the disease that killed millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages could break out in future, they warn.”
Sounds like a threat to me.
Doesn’t it just make you all warm and fuzzy, knowing the insane are running the asylum? I’m afraid to ask, what’s next.
Dangerous parasites like Yersina eventually evolve to less lethal forms. It’s to their advantage that the host lives some length of time so the parasite can be passed on to greater numbers of other hosts. A bacteria or virus that kills its host quickly will be selected against. The only way this more dangerous strain of Yersina would get loose in the population is if the scientists let it loose. And even then it’s more than likely that antibiotics would take care of it. It certainly didn’t get a resistance to antibiotics in the 6th Century.
Remember hearing about that ghost ship that was floating around that was infested with rats? Talk about a breading grounds for the plague. Yea, this was about a week ago or so. 🙁
Hey digger,
I was thinking the exact same thing to myself. It wasn’t even a week ago when that story came out. Things that make you go hmmm.
It was just reported within the last couple of days that the ship has sunk. The last I heard, it was going to make landfall in Ireland. Who knows at this point.
Hi Digger,
Yeah,.. I have been following that story.
It seems they, “can’t find” this “Russian Ghost Ship” (The Lyubov Orlova), even though its as big as,… well,… as BIG AS SHIP!!.
Yeah,… no problems here.
NSA can read the headlines off the newspaper your reading from fuk’n space,.. but they can’t find something that is about as big as a football field (???)
Yeah,.. nothing wrong here,.. move along people,… move along,…..
JD – US Marines – Now why would a MASSIVE, derelict,…. diseased laden ship of cannibal rats be of any concern that someone,.. anyone might want to get a fix on its location???
“When rapidly diagnosed and promptly treated, plague may be successfully treated, reducing mortality rate from 60 to less than 15 percent, the WHO says.”
Surrrre……tell me another one.
Next thing you know, they will be secretly injecting this disease into oranges to give to the people like they did with a disease in season two of the show “Revolution” just to wipe out a whole town in a matter of days. Meanwhile, the military and the elite have the vaccine/anti-dote for it, stored away in their safe for themselves.
I was watching that show for awhile, and stopped following it about a month ago. I don’t remember that part. How far into the series was that NC? Opps, Just realized you said season 2, I must of missed that part or didn’t get that far yet.
Opening Pandora’s Box is ill-advised.