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Big Daddy
PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:58 pm  Reply with quote
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Plague a growing but overlooked threat: study
By Michael Kahn LONDON (Reuters)

Plague, the disease that devastated medieval Europe, is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers warned on Tuesday.

While it has only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the past 20 years, plague has appeared in new countries in recent decades and is now shifting into Africa, Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool and colleagues said.

A bacterium known as Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death when it was spread by infected fleas, and the more dangerous pneumonic plague, spread from one person to another through coughing or sneezing.

"Although the number of human cases of plague is relatively low, it would be a mistake to overlook its threat to humanity, because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated," they wrote in the journal Public Library of Science journal PloS Medicine.

Rodents carry plague, which is virtually impossible to wipe out and moves through the animal world as a constant threat to humans, Begon said. Both forms can kill within days if not treated with antibiotics.

"You can't realistically get rid of all the rodents in the world," he said in a telephone interview. "Plague appears to be on the increase, and for the first time there have been major outbreaks in Africa."

Globally the World Health Organization reports about 1,000 to 3,000 plague cases each year, with most in the last five years occurring in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States sees about 10 to 20 cases each year.

More worrying are outbreaks seem on the rise after years of relative inactivity in the 20th century, Begon said. The most recent large pneumonic outbreak comprised hundreds of suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006.

Bubonic plague, called the Black Death because of black bumps that sometimes develop on victims' bodies, causes severe vomiting and high fever. Victims of pneumonic plague have similar symptoms but not the black bumps.

Begon and his colleagues called for more research into better ways to prevent plague from striking areas where people lack access to life-saving drugs and to defend against the disease if used as a weapon.

"We should not overlook the fact that plague has been weaponized throughout history, from catapulting corpses over city walls, to dropping infected fleas from airplanes, to refined modern aerosol formulation," the researchers wrote. (Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Ibon Villelabeitia)
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Father Merrin
PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:54 am  Reply with quote
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And the last time we had the Black Death in Britain was 1666

Quote:
In two successive years of the 17th century London suffered two terrible disasters. In the spring and summer of 1665 an outbreak of Bubonic Plague spread from parish to parish until thousands had died and the huge pits dug to receive the bodies were full. In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the centre of London but also killed off most of the black rats and fleas that carried the plague bacillus.


http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/GreatPlague.htm
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Father Merrin
PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:58 am  Reply with quote
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyam

A very brave story and still of use today.



Quote:
Eyam's role in genetic research

Some research indicates that the villagers of Eyam may have had some genetic protection from the bubonic plague.[3] A CCR5 gene mutation designated as "delta 32" was found in a statistically significant number, 14%, of direct descendants of the plague survivors. The Delta 32 mutation appears to be very rare. In fact, the levels of Delta 32 found in Eyam were only matched in regions of Europe that had been affected by the plague and in Americans of European origin. It has also been suggested[3] that the Delta 32 mutation, if inherited from both parents, may provide immunity to HIV/AIDS.

More recent research at Scripps Research Institute disputes the hypothesis that the Delta 32 mutation provided protection against the plague, suggesting instead that it is more likely to have arisen as protection against some other disease common at the time, such as smallpox. This new hypothesis is still being tested. [4]

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Big Daddy
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:49 am  Reply with quote
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Father Merrin wrote:
And the last time we had the Black Death in Britain was 1666

Quote:
In two successive years of the 17th century London suffered two terrible disasters. In the spring and summer of 1665 an outbreak of Bubonic Plague spread from parish to parish until thousands had died and the huge pits dug to receive the bodies were full. In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the centre of London but also killed off most of the black rats and fleas that carried the plague bacillus.


http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/GreatPlague.htm


Very interesting quote Father!
I read the entire article and it seems like a shocking modern biblical tale!.
it gives me the creeps.
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Big Daddy
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:17 am  Reply with quote
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Father Merrin wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyam

A very brave story and still of use today.


WOW! i´m speechless...
I think W. Mompesson is a clear example of vision. Not only for his townspeople, but for all his fellow countryman. It took a lot of balls to make a stand of that magnitude. From now on, the term "Quarantine" will take a different meaning for me.

By the way, this story is what Peter use to call as "a story of zombies without the zombies", isn´t it?
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Father Merrin
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:05 pm  Reply with quote
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Eyam is a great story, I heard it on the radio when I was about nine before school was closed for Christmas as the snow was piling up outside. Hearing this story at such a young age in a cold old brick school during one of Britains great winters means I have never forgotten that story. There are still many gravestones and graveyards all over with skull and crossbones on for plague deaths. Still seem spooky to this day.

I don't know about that quote but it would be a definite good one for that story.
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