Scientists Sequence Black Death Bacteria

First time accepted submitter Quince alPillan writes "The bacteria behind the Black Death has a very unusual history. Its ancestor is an unassuming soil bacterium and the current strains of Yersinia pestis still infects thousands of people annually, but no longer causes the suite of horrifying symptoms associated with the medieval plagues. The radical differences, in fact, had led some to suggest that we had been blaming the wrong bacteria. Now, researchers have obtained DNA from some of London's plague victims, and confirmed that Y. pestis appears to be to blame. But the sequences also suggest that the strains of bacteria we see today may be different from the ones that rampaged through Europe."

Comments

Re:The Black Death isn't coming back

[Dunbal]

The real danger is in a strain of bacteria that can infect a host, cause relatively mild and temporary symptoms, then reinfect and spread after a period of time leading to a lethal toxicity in the effected patient and the people they have probably come into contact with.

You then went on to talk about Ebola, which is a virus - so fair game: The REAL danger is a virus that infects people and shows virtually no symptoms for many years, and then kills them. Oh wait, we already have one, it's called HIV. Do you have HIV? No? How do you know? When was your last series of tests? Better yet, there is no cure, only treatment. Which means you can go on and potentially infect people for the rest of your life-span provided you can afford the treatment. This way you get a mortal disease that is endemic within the population. It's only a matter of time before we are all infected. Conspiracy theories aside, "big pharma" must be excited as hell.