A new study reveals that plague was lethal thousands of years ago, during the Neolithic.
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But today it’s rare – and can be effectively treated with antibiotics.
People caught and died from plague long before it caused major epidemics like the Black Death in the middle ages. Could what scientists call cultural resistance be what kept the disease under control?
Where do plague bacteria go between outbreaks? Research demonstrates that they can survive and replicate inside amoebae that are widely present in soil and water worldwide.
Plague, one of the deadliest diseases in the world, has been reported in several African countries in the past decade.
It’s a deadly bacterium that can spread like wildfire. New research suggests Yersinia pestis first developed its ability to cause lung infection and then evolved to be highly infectious.
Cases of plague have been reported in the Chinese city of Yumen, where a man has died of the disease. Control measures taken by the authorities include travel restrictions in and out of the city, and 151…
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Postdoctoral Fellow in Bacteriology, Northwestern University
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Assistant Professor of Microbiology-Immunology, Northwestern University
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PhD Candidate, Colorado State University
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Professor of Infectious Diseases, Monash University
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Principal Pathologist, Centre for Emerging, Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Wits Research Institute for Malaria, University of the Witwatersrand
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Lecturer, California State University, Long Beach
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MPhil Candidate in Bioscience Enterprise, University of Cambridge
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Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University
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Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford
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Stephen Shennan is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor of Theoretical Archaeology, UCL