By: Ruyi Wang

Do you know when and where the Black Death actually began to spread throughout the world? This unsolved question might be answered soon by the researchers.

The researchers [at what institution? and when? Make sure to answer all 5 Ws in your lead.] found the “key evidence” to this debatable mystery. In the latest study, researchers claimed that they were able to find the plague bacteria DNA in the teeth of skeletons whom the researchers were suspecting to be the plague victims.

Before this discovery, researchers were only able to tell that the victims died from the plague based on the records from that time. This was because people died so quickly that it did not leave any “evidence” on the skeletons, unlike some infectious diseases.

Black Death, also called the plague, is a type of infectious disease that is caused by the bacillus germ, Yersinia pestis that is often spread by rodents and fleas. This was a devastating disease in the past, and it caused many pandemics around the world before the 19th century.

This lethal disease often had symptoms such as vomiting pus-filled boils and tumors, and blackened dead skin. Black Death still exists nowadays, but it is pretty rare for people to get it because people’s living conditions have improved and the bacteria can be easily killed with antibiotics.

According to the researchers, the Black Death began in the fourteenth century (around 1346 through 1353) and it started in a mountainous area just west of China in what is now Kyrgyzstan. This was considered the second major Yersinia pestis pandemic (the first one occurred in the sixth century), and it killed approximately 100 million to 200 million people just in six years. This is about 60 percent of the entire Eurasia population!

In 1347, the plague spread to Europe with rodents on the trading ships, and it started to spread throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and soon to almost every continent.

After the major discovery, scientists were able to create a “family tree” for the variations of Yersinia pestis. The root strand was found in rodents in Kyrgyzstan and there are four strains of the bacteria.

Researchers haven’t found enough evidence to prove their estimation of the origin of the Black Death, but the discovery of bacteria DNA on the victims’ teeth was definitely a big step toward the truth that would be revealed one day.