For many years, scientists have been unable to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of the Black Death. Finally they succeeded. The answer lay in… teeth. They took DNA samples from skeletons located in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, where there has been a mysterious increase in the number of burials. Researchers believe that this is where the plague was born.
- The plague nearly 600 years ago killed tens of millions of people on all continents
- The details of this epidemic are not known to this day. It is not known where, when and why it exploded
- The latest findings of scientists show that the place where she could have been born is Kyrgyzstan. This is indicated by the DNA results of the skeletons discovered there, namely their teeth
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
In the 80th century, the plague reduced the population in some parts of the world by as much as 30%. In Europe, life due to the disease has lost 60 to XNUMX percent. population. Tens of millions of people were victims of it on all continents.
For many years, researchers have been looking for answers to the question of when and where this devastating epidemic broke out. It seems that they have finally solved this bothering puzzle.
Black Death – the birthplace of the epidemic located?
Researchers from the German Max Planck Institute, the University of Tübingen, and the University of Stirling in Scotland examined DNA samples taken from skeletal teeth in a cemetery near Issyk Kul Lake (Kyrgyzstan). Many people who died of the plague around the XNUMXth century were buried in this cemetery.
Teeth with clear blood vessels were selected for the study. “This gave a high chance of detecting blood borne pathogens that could have killed these people,” says University of Tübingen researcher Dr. Maria Spyrou, quoted by the BBC.
The rest of the text below the video.
In some of the skeletons, a plague stick, i.e. a bacterium, was found Yersinia pestis. It is a pathogen from the enterobacterial family that has the ability to cause zoonosis, i.e. a zoonotic disease. In the case of the plague, its reservoir was once primarily rodents, or rather fleas parasitizing them (today they include marmots, guinea pigs and gophers).
The results of these studies led the researchers to conclude that the black death epidemic started in the northern part of Kyrgyzstan. This is also indicated by the fact that at the turn of 1338 and 1339, the number of burials at Lake Issyk Kul significantly increased.
Interestingly, so far researchers have tended to the fact that the plague appeared on a larger scale in China. From there, via the silk route, she got to the Crimea and spread throughout Europe.
Plague – what is this disease?
Plague (also called Black Death and Plague) is an acute infectious disease caused by a bacterial infection (plague stick). Of the three forms of the disease, bubonic plague is the most common, leading to enlarged lymph nodes. Its complication is septic plague, although some patients develop it right away. Another complication is pulmonary plague, which sometimes arises independently as a result of contracting the plague stick by droplets directly from the patient.
Among the most common symptoms of the plague are:
- high fever,
- strong sweating
- chills,
- swollen lymph nodes
- Headache,
- muscle pain,
- significant weakness.
In the case of the pulmonary variant, it is primarily: coughing, coughing up bloody discharge, increasing difficulty in breathing, nausea, vomiting, high fever and headache.
Treatment of the plague is based on antibiotic therapy. Success depends largely on efficient operation, i.e. administration of the drug as soon as possible (preferably in the first day), depending on the symptoms.
Currently, plague is endemic. Cases are recorded in African and Asian countries.
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