Is the Black death the mother of all plagues?

Could the Black Death 1347be the mother of all modern plague outbreaks? A recent study published in the journal Nature, says yes.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Researchers have finally sequenced the entire genome of the medieval strain of Yersinia Pestis, the bacteria which caused the Black Death of 1347-1351 in Europe.

Scientists have found that all modern strains of the bubonic plague are descended from the same plague bacterium which devastated London in 1348. Modern strains of the plague can be found throughout China, India, Western Asia, Central and Southern Africa, South America, and the Western United States.

Plague is rare in humans. Typically, it is found in fleas which are living on mammals. Mammals carrying plague-infected fleas typically get the disease. On rare occasion, humans are infected usually by fleas which have left their host animal to bite a human handling the sickened creature. For this reason, particularly in the American West, people are strongly warned not to handle wild animals that appear sick or that may have recently died.

Other research into the plague has also shown that the 1347 strain which was responsible for the Black Death, mutated just before wiping out up to half of Europe's population. Researchers believed that the recent mutation of the bacteria prevented the immune systems of victims from fighting off the disease. Much like the Native Americans in the centuries following the arrival of Columbus, Europeans had no resistance to the bacteria and quickly died in large numbers.
Fortunately, the modern plague can be cured with antibiotics.

Medieval mortality is believed to be high for a number of reasons. First, the virulence of the disease was a result of its recent mutation meant that people had no resistance to it. Second, sanitation barely existed in 14th century Europe. The filth greatly exacerbated the severity of the disease and prevented victims from getting better. Third, substantial population density, and people living in close proximity to animals, including rats and mice, facilitated the rapid transmission of the disease from host to host. Since medieval populations did not understand the causes of disease, they were not able to take effective precautions to slow its spread.

The research also seems to answer at least one other historic mystery. The Justinian plague of the sixth century, has long been suspected to be the result of the bubonic plague. While the precise cause of the plague is still unknown, researchers have virtually ruled out that the 1347 strain of Yersinia Pestis as the cause.

Researchers obtained their samples of the plague from a London cemetery founded in 1348 specifically for plague victims. Using pulp extracted from the teeth of victims, they were able to obtain small samples of the bacteria. The samples were then used to extract genetic information which was then sequenced to provide scientists with the fully mapped genome of the bacterium.

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Scientists say the research is important because many modern diseases are believed to be reemergences of ancient diseases. Learning more about ancient diseases, may allow scientists to unlock the mysteries of modern disease, and understanding modern disease, can help scientists and doctors save lives both now and in the future. 

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