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How humans survived the plague for millenia
One of civilization's most prolific killers shadowed humans for thousands of years without their knowledge.
The bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes the plague, is thought to be responsible for up to 200 million deaths across human history — more than twice the casualties of World War II.
The Y. pestis death toll comes from three widespread disease outbreaks, known as epidemics: the sixth century Justinianic Plague that ravaged the Eastern Roman Empire; the 14th century Black Death that killed somewhere between 40 percent and 60 percent of the European population; and the ongoing Third Pandemic, which began in China in the mid-19th century and currently afflicts thousands worldwide.
Scientists long assumed that the deadly disease began infecting humans just before the earliest epidemic, the Justinianic Plague.
But recent paleogenetics research reveals that plague has been with us for millennia longer: Ancient DNA (aDNA) from the bacteria was recovered from human skeletons as old as 4,900 years. This means people were contracting and dying from plague at least 3,000 years before there's any archaeological or historical evidence for an epidemic.
Why didn't these earlier infections lead to devastating outbreaks like the Black Death? It seems the answer is part biological — genetic mutations to the bacteria itself — and part cultural — changes to human lifestyles that encouraged the spread of the disease.
[...] The harsh reality is that it's exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to control a pathogen, its possible mutations or its next outbreak. But understanding how human behaviors affect the spread and virulence of a disease can inform preparations for the future.
As a society, we can take organized measures to reduce the spread of infection, whether by limiting over-congestion, controlling food waste, or restricting access to contaminated areas. Human behaviors are just as critical to our disease susceptibility as are the characteristics of the pathogen itself.
This article is republished from The Conversation by Sonja Eliason, MPhil Candidate in Bioscience Enterprise, University of Cambridge and Bridget Alex, Lecturer, California State University, Long Beach under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:07AM (9 children)
vs.
I think someone needs to look up the words "epidemic" and "pandemic" then recategorize the current situation to something more appropriate. I suggest "yawnfest".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 24 2019, @03:54AM (7 children)
Without modern medicine, the current global pandemic would be quite a bit more serious.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 24 2019, @03:58AM
Ethanol-HIV-fueled should be dead from AIDS long ago.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:18PM (5 children)
Point was "thousands worldwide" ain't exactly a pandemic or even an epidemic. Not even if it's the plague or smallpox. It's more of a nothingburger.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:33PM (2 children)
By that metric, Leprosy was kind of a nothingburger even before it was treatable... it is interesting to wonder what causes these flareups in human susceptibility to plague, seems like it would be more than living conditions, but maybe there's a critical threshold where it transitions from an annoying nothingburger into overwhelming the majority of peoples' immune systems.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:37PM (1 child)
Oh it's interesting enough, it just doesn't warrant the clickbait naming.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:50PM
Clickbait is here to stay, it's like the demon spawn of junk mail and TV advertising.
I wonder how long it will be before there are algorithms which can filter the click bait from the content presented in your searches?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 24 2019, @08:56PM (1 child)
How does the old saw go? "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when *you* lose your job."
I'm sure it's a "nothingburger" for you, but not so much for the thousands who suffer from Yersinia Pestis. Even if you don't die, it's painful and really disgusting.
And while I'm not real broken up about it, especially since no one I know is affected, I can still sympathize with the folks who are, and would like to see this scourge controlled better than it is today.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 24 2019, @10:35PM
Scourge would be fine as well but even epidemic isn't remotely accurate unless it's all in one town.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 24 2019, @09:43AM
The plague is alive and well [azcentral.com] in Flagstaff, Arizona. When I lived there as a tiny kid it was always all over the news, but not in reality enough of a big deal to give a fuck. It wasn't till years later after living somewhere else where I learned about the Black Death and had that "a-ha, holy shit!" moment.