Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
Was this the First Pandemic
999 Was this the First Pandemic
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr. David Niesel.
And I’m Dr. Norbert Herzog
Pandemics linger even while some people want to believe it’s over. COVID-nineteen is a good example. So, let’s look back at three huge pandemics caused by one bacterium, Yersinia pestis, that continues to persist today.
The first, the Plague of Justinian, began around five hundred CE and lasted for two hundred years. It killed fifty million people in Northern Egypt near the town of Pelusium.
The second Pandemic occurred in the mid thirteen hundreds. In just seven years, it killed two thirds of Europe’s population plus twenty-five million people in Asia and Africa. This one lasted four centuries.
The third plague began in China and continues today with outbreaks in numerous countries every year. Even though yersinia pestis is blamed for all three plagues, it’s never been found near Pelusium, the site of the first outbreak. No bodies near the city had enough protein to identify the microbe.
Then excavations in the nineties uncovered a mass grave not far from the city with skeletons of one hundred adults. Researchers removed molars and ribs to look for traces of Y. pestis.
Recently, they identified evidence of the bacterium’s proteins and DNA from those remains. It’s the first hard evidence that Y. pestis was behind the First Pandemic in the Byzantine Empire.
Cities like Jerash were centers of trade that made it easier for the bacteria to spread. We saw that with COVID-nineteen and it’s a lesson we learned and will heed into the future.
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast.
