Plague: From the 14th to the 21st century and still going strong
Plague tomb in Eyam by martsky
The Black Death, also known as the Plague, was a devastating pandemic that struck Europe in the 14th century, and killed between a third and two thirds of Europe’s population. Almost simultaneous epidemics occurred in Asia and the Middle East during the same period, so the well recorded waves of infection in Europe were really part of a worldwide pandemic which killed at least 75 million people. The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every generation with varying degrees of severity until the 1700s. The disease was completely eradicated in Europe only at the beginning of the 19th century, but survives in other parts of the world, notably in Africa, Asia and the Americas — including the United States.
But Yersinia pestis, the bacterium which causes plague, has not gone away, and climate change could mean that worse is to come. Find out more in this week’s MicrobiologyBytes podcast:
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Links:
- Wikipedia: The Black Death
- Wikipedia: Eyam
- CDC Plague Home Page
- Achtman M, et al. Microevolution and history of the plague bacillus, Yersinia pestis. PNAS USA. 2004 101: 17837-42.
- Chr Stenseth N, et al. Plague dynamics are driven by climate variation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006 Aug 21.
- Latest News
[...] As I described in this week’s podcast, Plague: From the 14th to the 21st century and still going strong, Yersinia pestis has been a major human pathogen for many centuries, and with climate change, looks set to get even worse. Part of the problem is that we still don’t have a really good understanding of how this bacterium causes disease. A paper just published in the journal Cell goes a long way towards changing that. A critical virulence determinant in Yersinia species is the Yersinia protein kinase A, YpkA, a multidomain protein which disrupts the actin cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells, essentially the glue which holds cells together. Despite its known importance to virulence, little has been forthcoming in understanding the mechanism of activity of YpkA. The new paper shows that YpkA possesses a Rac1 binding domain which mimics host guanidine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors (GDIs) of the Rho GTPases, so virulence in Yersinia species depends upon mimicry of host GDI proteins by YpkA. The new data strongly suggests that YpkA mimics host GDI proteins by acting as an “off switch” to modulate the Rac1-associated signaling pathways that regulate host cytoskeletal structure. The authors also point out that it is becoming increasingly clear that mimicry of eukaryotic biochemical processes is a common strategy used by many bacterial pathogens to modulate host cell biology, something that might previously only have been ascribed to viruses. [...]
[...] The Wandering Visitor shares his concerns about an FDA approved “viral spray” used to counter bacterial contamination meat products. Side trip: Visit Tara Smith’s Aetiology blog and discover the connection between the discovery of human papilloma virus and freaky, real-life jackalopes. [...]
[...] The History Carnival, where you can see a scary skull and crossbones and read about yer worst curse of the pirate — the plague (okay, the worst after running out of grog). [...]
[...] Something I’d like to do if I have time is a podcast on the village of Eyam, following a podcast by Alan Cann. Eyam was a village which became infected by the plague. The local vicar persuaded the villagers to isolate themselves, thus preventing the spread of the infection. You could argue that faith in God had no benefit for the villagers, the vicar ended up seeing his own wife die, but that is missing the point. Here faith bound the village together in a period when people were dying together. There must have been a huge urge to escape. Perhaps you could argue that it was the man, William Mompesson, who protected the neighbouring settlements from the plague, but it seems reasonable to assume his faith helped him. These things can be forgotten, but they should not be and protection is necessary. Personally I’d protect heritage sites around the village purely because of their historical context, but their Christian context is bound up in this. [...]
[...] Plague: From the 14th to the 21st century and still going strong [...]
[...] manner is of course plague. MicrobiologyBytes listeners are a bloodthirsty bunch, and whenever I’ve talked about plague before, it’s caused a big response, so hopefully you’ll enjoy this story [...]