Jun 16, 2022 at 5:21 am 03
Updated 4 hours ago
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The bacterium “Yersinia pestis” is the cause of the bubonic plague
Researchers believe they have uncovered the origins of the Black Death more than 600 years after it killed tens of millions across Europe, Asia and North Africa.
The health catastrophe in the middle of the 14th century is one of the most important pandemic chapters in human history.
But despite years of research, scientists still haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly where bubonic plague started.
Now analyzes suggest it was in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, in the 1330s.
A research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland and the Max Planck Institute and the University of Tübingen in Germany analyzed ancient DNA samples from teeth from corpses buried in cemeteries near Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan.
They chose this region after noticing a marked increase in burials taking place there in 1338 and 1339.
Maria Spyrou, a researcher at the University of Tübingen, said the team sequenced the DNA of seven skeletons.
They analyzed the teeth because, according to Spyrou, they contain many blood vessels and offer researchers “a great opportunity to detect bloodborne pathogens that may have caused the individuals’ deaths.”
The research team was able to detect the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in three of them.
“Our study solves one of history’s greatest and most intriguing questions, determining when and where the most notorious and notorious killer of people began,” said Philip Slavin, a historian at the University of Stirling, of the discovery.
However, the research has some limitations — including the small sample size.
Michael Knapp from the University of Otago in New Zealand, who was not involved in the study, praised the work as “really valuable”, but noted:
“Data from many more people, times, and regions…would really help clarify what the data presented here really mean.”
The researchers’ work was published in the journal Nature under the title: “The source of the Black Death in fourteenthcentury central Eurasia”.
What is bubonic plague?
Bubonic plague is the most common form of the disease people can get. The name derives from the symptoms it causes a painful swelling of the lymph nodes that forms a type of blister known as a “bubo” in the groin or armpit.
From 2010 to 2015, 3,248 cases were reported worldwide, including 584 deaths.
Historically, it was also called the Black Death in reference to the fact that it causes burns on certain parts of the body, such as fingers and toes, which eventually turn black.
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