Deadly Black Death bug hasn't changed, but we have

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have cracked the genetic code of the Black Death, one of history's worst plagues, and found that its modern day bacterial descendants haven't changed much over 600 years.

In devastating the population, it changed the human immune system, basically wiping out people who couldn't deal with the disease and leaving the stronger to survive, said study co-author Hendrik Poinar of McMaster University in Ontario.

A number of important factors are not mentioned. One is the rat—the Black Rat which carried the Plague was an upstairs rat living intimately in homes, the Norway gray rat is a basement and sewer rat. I think the Black Rat was killed off by the Plague. Plague is endemic among wild rodents in 17 western US states. Our nutrition is much better. I seem to recall that someone famous (Nostradomus?) encouraged people to use Vitamin C rich rose hips tea. Vitamin C is vital in the production of white blood cells and in strengthening the adrenal glands. Many cats were killed as familiars of witches who were also killed in the many thousands in that period. Accused witches were also often the herb women, who were actually probably better at healing than the barber surgeons of the time. Professional jealosy?? There are 3 forms of the Plague—bubonic, pneumonic, and septisemic. The first, spread by flea bites, shows up as swellings in the lymph glands which means that the system is fighting back, and has a fairly high survival rate with proper treatment. The second is spread through the air, kills rapidly and is the greatest public health danger. The third is almost totally fatal and is a sign of a severely damaged immune system.

The discovery of the Delta 32 gene with it’s concurrent protection against HIV is fascinating. The probability is that two people with one gene have a 25% chance of having a child with both genes. If 10% of Europeans have this gene, then how much of that population has one gene? Don’t forget to subtract the 10% that have both. Someone, please help me with the math (not my strong point). Thanks.

There is not quite enough information to answer this question. Is that 10% of Europeans just the homozygotes, or does that 10% consist of both hetero- and homozygotes?

It is necessary to recall that the resistance was not uniformly found in the populations affected by the disease. However, records in Norway and Sweden indicate NO Sa'ami were affected. Records in the Mediterranean indicate an enormous percentage were affected.

The earlier theory was that the disease mutated as it moved North and West and eventually became non-infectious.

That too ~ else we'd continue to have black plague outbreaks that would gradually whittle back the numbers without resistance.

We have since discovered ways to control that vector so the outbreaks are fewer and far between and the deadly gene that gives you no resistance continues to spread in the population.

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