The Bubonic Plague is often described in Biology textbooks as a fine example of a “bottleneck effect”. How many people survived the plague? Are modern-day Europeans all descendants of the survivors of the plague? Is there any place in Europe unaffected by plague? Did whole families die in the plague?
Chances that someone alive in 14th century Europe never encountered the plague at all AND his / her descendants never intermarried with anyone whose ancestors survived the plague in the ensuing 660 years: zero.
Chances that someone who died in the plague reproduced afterwards: zero. (And, of course, if he or she had reproduced before the plague, those children were also plague survivors or else also died in the plague.)
Fascinating question. For a small amount of the European population, I’ve heard there are a specific set of genes that would allow you to have either partial or full immunity from the plague. Those who have this particular set of genes also seem to have partial or total immunity from the HIV virus. Since most of my heritage is European, I’ve wondered if I (along with quite a few members of this board) lucked out, so to speak, if my existence was the result of my ancestor’s blind luck of avoiding exposure to the Black Death, surviving the encounter, genetics, etc.
:dubious:I think very few, if any, people are immune to HIV. Plenty of the people who have HIV infection, or even full blown AIDS are European or of European descent.
Anyway, immunity to specific diseases is not normally heritable. Usually, immunity is something you acquire from low level exposure.
About 25,000,000 in Europe.
There were undoubtedly people who had children and then died of the plague. So I suppose some people could be said to be descendants of people who didn’t survive the plague. But statistically these cases must have been rare and with multiple generations since then, I’m pretty sure everyone now living in Europe had at least one ancestor who caught the plague but didn’t die of it. So the answer is yes.
Yes. Bruges and Milan never had any major outbreaks. Neither did the Pyrenees or Iceland or much of Central Europe.
Yes.
I have too have heard the claim that some subset of Europeans are resistant to the HIV virus. Here is a link to the first google result. It is in an online magazine, but it looks like there my be links to the actual studies in the article: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/01/66198?currentPage=all
I thought it was an episode of Nova, but a little Google-Fu pointed to another series, “Secrets of the Dead”
It’s a wee bit dated (2002). Science marched on and I took a nap.
You did not imagin this.. I recently read that modification of the CCR5 receptor had successfully passed phase 1 trials. I could be wrong on any number of details there though, and I’ve lost my source.
For perspective it’s estimated that at least a third of Europe’s population died of plague - 25,000,000 or more.
You still get ten to fifteen cases of Bubonic plague a year in the U.S., mostly in the S.W., New Mexico, Nevada etc.
Plague comes in two flavors: Bubonic and pneumonic. Bubonic was an infection of the lymph glands, which swelled into hard buboes. Sometimes they’d even rupture, spreading nastiness everywhere.
Yuck.
Bubonic plague, usually spread by infected flea bite, was survivable, approximately 40-60% of those infected survived.
Septicemic plague is a complication of bubonic plague, when the disease travels from the lymphatic system to the bloodstream. Before the days of antibiotics, septicemic plague was typically 100% fatal.
Pneumonic plague is when the infection occurs in the lungs, and it is transmitted by the coughing or sneezing of the infected person. It is usually 100% fatal, with death often occurring within 24 hours of infection.
~VOW