Posted on 01/04/2005 7:21:29 PM PST by blam
Black Death mutant gene resists Aids, say scientists
Jan 4 2005
By Alan Weston, Daily Post
IT HAS been described as the 'world's greatest serial killer'.
The Black Death was a catastrophe which wiped out nearly half the European population, with 20m people dying between 1348 and 1350.
But new research being carried out by a team from Liverpool University has shown that the disease may have produced an unexpected side-effect - resistance to the deadly HIV/Aids virus.
Professor Christopher Duncan and Dr Susan Scott have already caused shockwaves among historians with their claim that the Black Death was caused by a life-threatening virus, which has been lying dormant and could re-appear at any time.
The traditional view, still accepted by the majority of historians, is that the killer disease was a form of bubonic plague which was spread by fleas jumping from infected rats to humans.
Now the latest research by Prof Duncan and Dr Scott, from the university's School of Biological Sciences, has revealed that those who survived the Black Death may have inherited a mutant gene.
This gave their descendants, many generations later, increased resistance to the HIV virus.
Such a theory helps to explain, they say, why Aids has not taken hold in Europe to the same extent as it has in sub-Saharan Africa, which suffered from a different form of plague than that which ravaged the British Isles and the rest of continental Europe for three centuries.
Prof Duncan said: "We know that 10pc of the European population are genetically resistant to HIV. They do not catch the disease even after continued exposure, and it is only in Europe that this genetic mutation can be found.
"We believe it was the Black Death which caused this mutation, as people gradually formed an in-built resistance to the disease.
"As there was no Black Death in Africa, there was no resistance to the HIV infection.
"The lucky people who are resistant to HIV have benefited because their ancestors were resistant to Black Death, and they bore children who also carried the mutant gene."
Much of Prof Duncan and Dr Scott's researches have been carried out in the Peak District village of Eyam, one of the last English villages to be infected by an outbreak of the plague in 1665-66, where they have studied original parish records, wills and diaries to create a profile of the disease.
They claim the disease could not have been spread by the fleas on rats as the rodents could not have travelled far or quickly enough.
Instead, it was an infectious disease passed from person to person. If a similar kind of virus was to emerge in today's globalised society, the fatal illness would be spread quickly around the world.
The Liverpool research team say their revolutionary theory as to what caused the Black Death and made it spread like wildfire across Europe is gaining growing acceptance.
The scientists are due to present the latest findings of their research into the Aids-Black Death link in the Journal of Medical Genetics.
alanweston@dailypost.co.uk
GGG Ping.
Perhaps behavioral differences between the two populatons (English and African) would also account for the diffence in HIV infecton rates.
There may have been some isolation of Sub-Saharan Africa, but Egypt was not exempt, and thus East Africa was definitely exposed, and suffered.
How does this data correlate with AmerIndian populations, who certainly did not see exposure in the 14th Century.
This argues against their case. The Black Death devastated India, China and the Middle East as well as Europe. If the genetic mutation is only in Europe, I'd say it has no correlation to any ancestors surviving the plague.
Beat me!
He's an HIV+ carrier. Just lovely.
The important thing to know is that George Bush likely knew this when he loosed the AIDS virus in Africa, lo, those 25 to 30 years ago. Or was it Ronald Reagan?
The virus may not have implanted the mutation in the other areas. It would be a rather rare event. But there is substantial evidence that shows that viri have caused several mutations in humans.
Bush's great, great, great, great, great, great, grandfather caused the Black Death in England and Eurpope.
"My ancestry is Irish and German."
Me too! Yay us!
I must note for the record that my (homosexual) brother, depsite his (relatively per his MD) low risk factors died of AIDS.
I don't mean to aks a stoopid question, but aren't Americans from the same Europeans who survived the dark ages? That gene should be as common here as it is in Europe. Sounds like aerian race nonsense..........
Well, that's the sensational explanation. What is a bit more likely is that there may be a common virulence mechanism between Yersinia pestis and the AIDS virus, which is extremely interesting but quite different from the hypothesis that there is a mystery virus behind the Black Death.
Populations through which the Plague ran will naturally have a higher incidence of people resistant due to genetic factors because they're the ones who survived and bred. A higher incidence of resistant people means a lower incidence of AIDS, assuming that the same gene that afforded resistance to the Plague does so for AIDS.
Of course, it isn't impossible that the Black Death incorporated a mystery virus piggy-backing on top of the Plague bacillus, but it isn't apparent either from mortality figures or from this resistance that it existed. It would have to have been a pretty exotic beast - virulent AND mutagenic. Color me skeptical.
First, condolences. Then, you've burst my bubble.
I think that's Aryan. Or maybe it's aeroian. As far as Americans are concerned, I think it would only apply to European-Americans, and as defilers of the orb, they hardly deserve to live.
Yes.
The Dark Ages began around 540AD and was likely caused by an impacting fragment from a comet.
I'm highly suspect of this as well. First, this presupposes that humans either evolved or were miraculously resistant to a pathogen that had mutated a 1000 fold by the time it burned it's way from China to the Atlantic.
Second, How do you PROVE anyone's resistance to HIV, when it takes so long for some to succumb to the virus? It may take decades to accurately track the parameters of it's spread and mortality rate.
Don't know.
Weren't there numerous outbreaks of something like the Black Death in Europe?
Well, insofar as it's meaningful to argue about a historical term... Historians generally consider the Dark Ages to have begun in the fifth century, when a series of barbarian peoples invaded the Mediterranean world and destroyed urban civilization.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.