Cause of the big plague epidemic of Middle Ages identified

PhysOrg.com ^ | October 11, 2010 | NA

[muawiyah]

Correcting the earlier error ~ BLACK PLAGUE BACTERIA (not virus).

[muawiyah]

Regarding the counting of plague victims ~ all of those counts are pretty much estimates made up by locals in later centuries who knew where they kept the mass graves (if any).

In areas where people just died in large numbers and no one was left to bury them, the numbers aren't known.

Some estimates rely on apparent economic activity "before" and "after".

The Chinese estimates are huge, and equally unreliable. The fact that a relatively small group ~ the Mongols ~ were able to subsequently conquer China and India ~ then, and now, the world's most populous nations ~ should give all of us some idea of who died and who didn't.

[Battle Axe]

Could it be that certain blood types are more or less resistant to the plague.

If blood type O was predominant in the pre-plague era and blood type A was predominant after, could we say that A was selected for via the plague.

Statistically, O is stronger against heart disease and cancer, but weak for anything that came from Pandora's Box. A's die like flies even today, and at younger ages, from cancer and heart disease.

Fox news last night had a mention of the French, who despite their diet had a lot of longevity. France should have been wiped out by plague, but there were pockets that refused outsiders entry. None died. They would still be heavily O’s.

[muawiyah]

Type A+ does dominate Northern and Western Europe doesn't it ~ but the further North you go the longer the expected lifespan with Scanderhoovian wimmin nearly equaling Japanese wimmin!

It's more like a series of diseases, some viral in nature and others bacterial, require some point of attachment on cell surfaces that simply isn't there in some people. This theory has been studied to some degree and the diseases identified. There are people immune to both black plague and cholera, and they appear to be immune to several other quite deadly but common infectious diseases.

Alas, none of the studies have been able to pin down the cause of this immunity (which includes an immunity to AIDs).

[wolfman23601]

Justinian’s Plague was in the 6th century, not the same plague as the black death of the 14th and 15th century.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

What bugs me is that everybody knows that the Roman Empire took censuses to (among other things) set taxes, and were careful to preserve these records. If we could recover them we would be able to easily figure the numbers for the sixth century plague, since the Byzantine Empire was at its greatest extent during the plague.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Never hire a rat to clean the house. ;’)

In Europe the Jews were widely blamed for the Black Death (well poisoning, spells, the usual bag of malarkey) and were driven out, murdered, and scrolls and temples were incinerated.

[colorado tanker]

The lighter side of the Black Death . . . .

[LadyDoc]

that “cat” item is quoted all the time, but I’ve never seen a scientific study on it.

The European “witch craze” was about 200 years after the black plague, and of course the black plague was world wide, not just in Europe.

[Jimmy Valentine]

You are correct. I think this was the first instance of Plague infestation and it spread from there.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 10/20/2010. Thanks neverdem.

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