Saturday, January 27, 2018

True Cause of the Black Death

From Independent:
Computer modelling carried out by a research team from the universities of Oslo and Ferrara suggests the first outbreak may not have been down to the rats, but instead can be “largely ascribed to human fleas and body lice”. Using mortality data from nine outbreaks of the plague in Europe between the 14th and 19th centuries, the researchers plotted how the disease would likely spread by different means. Seven out of the nine models indicated that transmission by human fleas and lice was the most likely cause of the disease’s spread, when compared to transfer by rats’ fleas, or airborne transmission. (Read more.)
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