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Plague decoded: Researchers link 2 of the most devastating pandemics in history
ctvnews.ca ^ | January 27, 2014 | Christina Commisso

Posted on 01/27/2014 5:08:06 PM PST by John W

An international team of scientists has discovered that two of the most devastating pandemics in human history -- responsible for killing as much as half the population in Europe at the time -- were caused by strains of the same bacterium.

The researchers announced Monday that the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death were caused by distinct strains of the same pathogen, and warned that similar pandemics can strike again.

The Plague of Justinian struck in the 6th century and is estimated to have killed between 30 and 50 million people -- virtually half the world’s population as it spread across Asia, North Africa, parts of the Middle East and Europe.

The Black Death struck about 800 years later, killing an estimated 50 million Europeans between just 1347 and 1351 alone.

Researchers were able to isolate miniscule DNA fragments from the 1500-year-old teeth of two victims of the Plague of Justinian who were buried in Bavaria, Germany. They then reconstructed the genome of the oldest Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for these plagues, and compared it to a database of genomes of more than a hundred contemporary strains.

The bacterium Yersinia pestis has jumped from rodents to humans throughout history, and Poinar said rodent reservoirs of plague still exist today in parts of Asia and Ukraine.

"What (the study) does seem to suggest is that obviously Yersinia pestis has this tremendous capability of emerging and re-emerging from these centres with these rodents," said Hendrik Poinar, director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre.

(Excerpt) Read more at ctvnews.ca ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blackdeath; blackplague; bubonicplague; byzantineempire; dsj02; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; justinian; justinianplague; justiniansplague; pandemic; pestilence; plague; plagueofjustinian; romanempire; yersiniapestis
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To: John W

Cats were a blessing during rodent infested times.

No wonder that evil superstitions got people to hate them. That’s the devil doing the devil thing.


81 posted on 01/27/2014 6:34:08 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar for you if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
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To: nvscanman

I once knew a retired doctor from Turkey who in his general practice had treated cases of both smallpox and the plague, although I suppose not in the same person at the same time.


82 posted on 01/27/2014 6:34:54 PM PST by PUGACHEV
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To: null and void

The stated purpose is to better understand what makes a pandemic bacteria and better design vaccines and antibiotics against it.

That may be the stated purpose of some, I’m sure others
are trying to better understand what makes a pandemic
bacteria and how to design a better one.

One of these days, it’s going to get away from them
and then we’ll find out what the dark ages were really
like.


83 posted on 01/27/2014 6:34:57 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Mark17

monty python history of the world...i believe.


84 posted on 01/27/2014 6:36:04 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: SunkenCiv

As holder of the GGG can you reference other historical plagues (not Biblical)?


85 posted on 01/27/2014 6:40:54 PM PST by bigheadfred
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To: Secret Agent Man

monty python and the holy grail, thanks for a prior post nailing it.


86 posted on 01/27/2014 6:41:59 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Mark17

The answer is in your question. I chose it as my handle on an aviation forum and decided to use it here as well.


87 posted on 01/27/2014 6:42:55 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (I'd give up chocolate but I'm no quitter)
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To: null and void

D.C. is due...

It could wipe out a whole lot of things and bring this country back to a Constitutional basis for Government.

Needs to be when Congress is in Session, Obama et al are home, and the SCOTUS is in session....Hmmm...State of the Union time speaks to me...


88 posted on 01/27/2014 6:43:15 PM PST by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
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To: tet68

You probably were given a plague shot. I have a shot card that says I got one in 1968.


89 posted on 01/27/2014 6:43:32 PM PST by Cold Heart
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To: Pearls Before Swine
The rodent caused plague that we are familiar with today had nothing to due with the "plague" in Europe in the 1500 and 1600s. Read Return of the Black Death by Susan Scott & Christopher Duncan.
90 posted on 01/27/2014 6:48:14 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (NRA)
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To: Cold Heart

Probably one or two. Now the GG shot was the worst
If you didn’t walk around immediately you would be
so stiff you couldn’t even sit down.
That was the one with the square needle!!
In all reality, who knows what the heck we were
shot up with, our only fear was to NOT lose your
shot card or go though it all again.


91 posted on 01/27/2014 6:50:25 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Squawk 8888
The answer is in your question. I chose it as my handle on an aviation forum and decided to use it here as well.

OK. I was an air traffic controller for 20 years, that is how I know about squawks. Nothing struck fear into our hearts, more, than the possibility of seeing a 7500 squawk. On 9/11, the chumps turned off the squawkers, so they could not be followed very closely. I worked in radar and I can assure you, it was almost impossible to watch aircraft, when their transponders were turned off. Later bro.

92 posted on 01/27/2014 6:59:29 PM PST by Mark17 (Chicago Blackhawks: Stanley Cup champions 2010, 2013. Vietnam Vet 70-71 Msgt US Air Force, retired)
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To: John W; All

Plague is treatable. My child survived bubonic plague.

Originally, I thought it was the flu but an alert intern drew a blood culture which showed the real cause of her disease. It takes 3 days to grow a culture and that’s when I almost lost my child. Waiting for the results is what’s deadly.

The vector was a flea from a dead squirrel. Stay away from dead animals.


93 posted on 01/27/2014 7:19:29 PM PST by JouleZ (You are the company you keep.)
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To: Mark17

I remember I rented a plane a few days after 9/11 (airspace in Canada opened a couple of days before the US) and posted at the FBO was the starkest memo I’d ever seen. It was from the US government stating that any aircraft crossing the border would be fired upon without warning.


94 posted on 01/27/2014 7:26:23 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (I'd give up chocolate but I'm no quitter)
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To: bigheadfred

On the Biblical front, I while the term plague itself is arguably a loan word from the Hebrew term for “blow,” the idea of the ten plagues of Egypt is largely a problem of editors etc. projecting second millennium European history onto a Biblical narrative.


95 posted on 01/27/2014 7:26:45 PM PST by Hieronymus ( (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. --G.K. Chesterton))
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To: AnAmericanAbroad

Not to mention people also decided that cats were evil and were killing them for fun...the kitties could have saved some of those people from a horrific death...


96 posted on 01/27/2014 7:30:42 PM PST by Tammy8
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To: John W

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2403099/Kyrgyzstan-lock-boy-15-dies-bubonic-plague.html


97 posted on 01/27/2014 7:32:21 PM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: SisterK

He’s been at a pretty good trot!


98 posted on 01/27/2014 7:34:35 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: M Kehoe

DDT


99 posted on 01/27/2014 8:08:30 PM PST by Calamari (Pass enough laws and everyone is guilty of something.)
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To: tet68
I went through Basic at Fort Polk, LA, in early Jan. 1971 and took the shot for the plague, along with shots for... who knows. The whole company was sick — fever, leg so sore hardly able to walk. After basic, went to Fort Sill. OK, for AIT — 82c20. Ordered to VN, via Fort Lewis, WA. We all had to take another round of shots, including that damn plague shot -- same side effects -- no questions asked or explaining we had already taken it in Basic just over five months earlier. I've always wondered why the plague shot was automatically included.
100 posted on 01/27/2014 8:43:09 PM PST by Eagle9
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