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Bubonic plague – also known as the Black Death – is known to have caused devastating epidemics that have affected mankind. In 1347, for example, it was estimated that the disease had killed about one third of the European population.
It was thought that this disease would have been the first of the major plague epidemics. But French, Swedish and Danish scientists have discovered that an ancestral strain of the same bacteria, Yersinia pestis, had already caused the deaths of people in the Neolithic era.
"Our research revealed what we believe to be the first major pandemic in human history," biologist Nicolás Rascovan, lead author of the study, published in the journal Cell. "This pandemic may have played a role in the important historical events of the time."
Rascovan lists three main evidences of the study. Between 5,700 and 5,1000 years ago – for the history of the world, a short time – many independent strains of Yersinia pestis have diverged and spread throughout Eurasia.
Human beings capable of spreading disease over large geographic areas – as a means of transport on wheels and by animal traction – have also spread to this great region.
The same period coincides with the emergence of the first considered human settlements of
"Thus, for the first time in the history of mankind, there were simultaneously perfect conditions for mankind. the emergence of diseases in these large agglomerations, while the technology was sufficient to spread them rapidly over great distances, "continues soon.
To corroborate this evidence, archaeological investigations show that during the same period, European Neolithic populations were declining. "At the same time that the plague appeared and spread, we badume that it played an important role in this process," says Rascovan
. Archeology of the disease
of human fossils of the period. And they came to see a woman who would have lived more than 5,000 years ago, where she is now Sweden and who died at the age of 20 from an ancestral strain of Plague. This indicates that it is the genetic origin of Yersinia pestis.
"The type of badysis that we have done allows us to go back in time and observe how this pathogen that has had such a great effect on humanity has evolved," says one other research author. , the scientist Simon Rasmussen
"This strain has allowed us to learn interesting things about the early history of the plague," says Rascovan. "As it was found at a place and time that did not fit into any previous pattern of plague appearance and spread, it made us rethink everything and build a new evolutionary model. deduce that the plague probably appeared in the first large European human settlements, from where it probably spread rapidly throughout Eurasia. "
Scientists believe that archaeologists are now studying the human remains of the Neolithic. can also pay attention to the signs of the bacteria of the plague.
The researcher believes that the bacterium has evolved from a virtually harmless phenomenon – and this is important to understand how pathogens become deadly." We often think that these super-pathogens have been around since always, "says Rasmussen.
" The plague having evolved from a relatively harmless organism. More recently, it is the same for smallpox, malaria, Ebola and zika. "
Rasmussen thinks that this discovery complements what we already knew about the decline of European populations during this period." If the plague evolved in the major colonies, then, when people started to to die, the settlements were abandoned and destroyed, which is exactly what we observed about 5,500 years ago, "he explains." Then people started to migrate along all the roads made possible by the transport of the time, then quickly developed across Europe. "
Which explains the fact that the plague reached the small village
Yersin, the discoverer
During the most famous black plague pandemic in the 14th century, an estimated 200 million people live in the region of Sweden, where remains of the bacteria have been observed in this woman, the people in Eurasia. The disease is very devastating e – if it is not treated, the lethality is 100% of the cases.
The bacterium Yersinia pestis is transmitted by rat fleas.
Until the end of the 19th century, she was unknown. exactly what caused the serious illness. In 1894, the eccentric Swiss scientist Alexander Yersin (1863-1943), one of the most brilliant disciples of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), discovered and isolated the bacterium, which was baptized Yersinia pestis, in l & rsquo; Honor of the scholar
The book tells of the wandering life of Yersin and all the epic that surrounded the discovery of the bacteria. "Yersin, if he was a Catholic, he would be sanctified, he would be immediately canonized as a conqueror of the plague, so that history seems to have a supernatural inspiration. "
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