Past plague

Abstract

The recent discovery, by two independent teams, of Yersinia pestis DNA in human remains dating from two historical plague pandemics, has generated renewed interest in the epidemiology of past plague epidemics. A scenario involving one of the three different Y. pestis pathovars identified at the time in each of the three pandemics was proposed in 1951. Palaeomicrobiologic and genetic data support an alternative scenario, with an Orientalis-like strain originating from Asia being responsible for all three plague pandemics. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.