December 29, 2017.
The plague would have arrived in Europe several thousand years ago, transported by populations fleeing Central Asia. This theory has just been put forward in a recent scientific study.
Nomads of the steppes would have brought the plague to Europe
When and how did the plague get to Europe? This is the question that German researchers from the Max Planck Institute have managed to answer. This disease, known to have been responsible for some of the worst epidemics in history, would have arrived on the European continent long before wreaking havoc, since the authors of this study start its history at the end of the Neolithic period.. According to German researchers, who published their findings in the journal Current Biology, the disease would have been imported by nomads from the steppes of Asia between 4,800 and 3,700 years ago.
To reach this conclusion, the scientists carried out analyzes on human bones found in various regions of Europe, in order to find fragments of the bacteria that cause the plague: Yesinia pestis. The latter has been found in fragments, or entirely, on teeth and bones from all over Europe and researchers have established a hypothesis: the plague could have arrived in Europe via populations who sought to flee this disease in Asia.
Several thousand cases of plague are diagnosed each year
” The threat presented by the plague could have been one of the reasons for these migratory movements between the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age. », Explains Johannes Krause, director of the Department of Archeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute and co-author of this study.
Since then, the plague has never really disappeared and, even today, it rages on certain continents such as Africa, Asia and America. The Institut Pasteur even qualifies it as a re-emerging disease in the world.. ” The number of cases reported by WHO is on the rise in some regions of the world […] nearly 50,000 cases were reported by 26 countries between 1990 and 2015 », Indicates the institute.
Gaelle Latour
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