Researchers believe they have discovered the origins of the Black Death, which killed tens of millions in Europe, Asia, and North Africa more than 600 years ago.
Africa more than 600 years ago. One of the most significant disease episodes in human history occurred in the mid-14th century.
Despite years of research, scientists were unable to pinpoint the origin of the bubonic plague. According to new evidence, it happened in Kyrgyzstan, central Asia, in the 1330s.
675 Years Later… This Is the Answer to the Mystery of the Black Death’s Origin. According to estimates, it killed up to 60% of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa’s population in just eight years, from 1346 to 1353.
It may sound like a mode headline, but scientists have spent centuries trying to figure out what caused the Black Death, which devastated the mediaeval world.
After analysing DNA from remains at an ancient burial site, researchers claim to have traced the source of the plague to a region of Kyrgyzstan.
“We actually managed to put to rest all those centuries old controversies about the origins of the Black Death,” said Philip Slavin, a historian who was part of the team
“We have basically located the origin in time and space,” said Prof Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.
“We discovered not only the ancestor of the Black Death, but also the ancestor of the vast majority of the plague strains that are currently circulating in the world.”
Humans, not rats, spread the Black Death.
“Our study puts to rest of history’s biggest and most fascinating questions, determining when and where the single most notorious and infamous killer of humans began,” said Dr. Philip Slavin, a historian at the University of Stirling, of the discovery.
The research does have some limitations – including the small sample size.
What exactly is bubonic plague?
Plague is a potentially fatal infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which lives in some animals, primarily rodents, and their fleas. most common form of the disease that people can contract is bubonic plague. The name is derived from the symptoms it causes, which are painful, swollen lymph nodes or ‘buboes’ in the groyne or armpit.
From 2010 to 2015, 3,248 cases were reported worldwide, with 584 deaths. It was also known as the Black Death because of the gangrenous blackening and death of body parts such as the fingers and toes that can occur as a result of the illness.
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