Dee Finney's blog

start date July 20, 2013

today's date March 15, 2013

page 469

TOPIC: DO WE REALLY NEED TO DIG UP THE BODIES OF BUBONIC PLAGUE VICTIMS FROM 650 YEARS AGO?

NOTE FROM DEE: It was bad enough when we started digging up the bodies of people from 1918 who died of the flu so we could study the dead bodies. Now we have bobonic plague vitims from 650 years ago, and they are going to study those bodies.

Studying bodies is one thing, but we KNOW that scientists have tried to recreate the bacteria so it can be used again to kill various groups of people especially in war situations. We DO NOT need to kill that many people, do we?

Here is the article from today's news.

Plague Graves Unearthed:
Rail Dig May Shed Light On Black Death Bacteria

Reuters | Posted: 03/15/2013 5:36 am EDT

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Archaeologists said on Friday they had found a graveyard during excavations for a rail project in London which might hold the remains of some 50,000 people killed by the "Black Death" plague more than 650 years ago.

Thirteen skeletons laid out in two neat rows were discovered 2.5 metres (8 feet) below the road in the Farringdon area of central London by researchers working on the 16 billion pound ($24 billion) Crossrail project.

Historical records had indicated the area, described as a "no man's land", had once housed a hastily established cemetery for victims of the bubonic plague which killed about the third of England's population following its outbreak in 1348.

"At this early stage, the depth of burials, the pottery found with the skeletons and the way the skeletons have been set out, all point towards this being part of the 14th century emergency burial ground," said Jay Carver, Crossrail's lead archaeologist.

Limited records suggest up to 50,000 victims were buried in less than three years in the Farringdon cemetery as the plague ravaged the capital.

The archaeologists hope that the skeletons, which have been taken away for scientific tests, will shed light on the DNA signature of the plague and confirm the burial dates.

The cemetery find could be the second significant medieval discovery in England recently, after archaeologists confirmed last month they had discovered the remains of King Richard III, who died in battle in 1485, under a car park in central England.

Building works for Crossrail, a new railway link under central London and Europe's largest infrastructure project, have already uncovered skeletons from more than 300 burials at a cemetery near the site of the notorious Bedlam Hospital for the mentally ill in the heart of the city of London. (Reporting by Michael Holden)

Medieval Knight Found Under Parking Lot In Scotland;
Mysterious Remains Thrill Archeologists

The Huffington Post | By Meredith Bennett-Smith Posted: 03/14/2013 9:57 am EDT

Midieval Knight

Archeologists this week announced the discovery of an unidentified medieval knight's skeleton buried along with several other bodies under a Scottish parking lot.

The knight -- or possibly nobleman -- was uncovered during construction work, according to The Scotsman. Also found was an intricately carved sandstone slab, several other human burial plots and a variety of artifacts researchers believe are from the 13th-century Blackfriars Monastery.

Midieval Knight Scotland

Councillor Richard Lewis, a member of the City of Edinburgh Council, said the archeological treasure trove has “the potential to be one of the most significant and exciting archaeological discoveries in the city for many years, providing us with yet more clues as to what life was like in Medieval Edinburgh," according to a statement released by the Edinburgh Center for Carbon Innovation (ECCI).

"We hope to find out more about the person buried in the tomb once we remove the headstone and get to the remains underneath but our archaeologists have already dated the gravestone to the thirteenth century," Lewis added.

The team leading the excavation is part of Headland Archeology, which noted with glee that many of its researchers may have once walked over the bones while studying nearby at the former University of Edinburgh's archaeology department. A statement released by the group says members are "looking forward to post excavation analyses that will tell us more about the individual buried there."

Ross Murray, a project officer for Headland, told The Huffington Post in an email that the team has already divined some clues about the knight's background.

"The knight would have been buried in the graveyard associated with the monastery meaning he had money or was important in the society of time," Murray told HuffPost. "The more important you were the closer you got placed to the church. He was also pretty tall for the time being around 6ft or so."

Echoing Councillor Lewis, Murray went on to say that the contents of the grave site and monastery will be "fantastic" additions to Scottish art history.

"We have now taken the body back to our labs and will have an osteo-archaeologist examine the body to try and establish their sex, age, if they had any diseases or even how they died," Murray said. "The medieval was a pretty brutal time so a violent death wouldn't be uncommon. We would also get radiocarbon dates from the bones to get a more accurate date for the burial and have an expert in medieval sculpture looks at the carved grave slab."

BUBONIC PLAGUE

Bubonic plague is a zoonotic disease, circulating mainly among small rodents and their fleas,^[1] and is one of three types of bacterial infections caused by Yersinia pestis (formerly known as Pasteurella pestis), which belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Without treatment, the bubonic plague kills about two thirds of infected humans within 4 days.

The term bubonic plague is derived from the Greek word βουβών, meaning "groin." Swollen lymph nodes (buboes) especially occur in the armpit and groin in persons suffering from bubonic plague. Bubonic plague was often used synonymously for plague, but it does in fact refer specifically to an infection that enters through the skin and travels through the lymphatics, as is often seen in flea-borne infections.

Bubonic plague—along with the septicemic plague and the pneumonic plague, which are the two other manifestations of Y. pestis—is generally believed to be the cause of the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 14th century and killed an estimated 25 million people, or 30–60% of the European population.^[2] Because the plague killed so many of the working population, wages rose and some historians have seen this as a turning point in European economic development.^[3]^[4]

ACRAL NECROSIS

Acral necrosis of the nose, the lips, and the fingers and residual ecchymoses over both forearms in a patient recovering from bubonic plague that disseminated to the blood and the lungs. At one time, the patient's entire body was ecchymotic. Reprinted from Textbook of Military Medicine

The most infamous symptom of bubonic plague is an infection of the lymph glands (lymphadenitis), which become swollen and painful and are known as buboes. After being transmitted via the bite of an infected flea the Y. pestis bacteria become localized in an inflamed lymph node where they begin to colonize and reproduce. Buboes associated with the bubonic plague are commonly found in the armpits, upper femoral, groin and neck region. Acral gangrene (i.e. of the fingers, toes, lips and nose), is another common symptom.

Due to its bite-based form of infection, the bubonic plague is often the first step of a progressive series of illnesses. Bubonic plague symptoms appear suddenly, usually 2–5 days after exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms include:

Acral gangrene: Gangrene of the extremities such as toes, fingers, lips and tip of the nose.^[5]
Chills
General ill feeling (malaise)
High fever (39 °Celsius; 102 °Fahrenheit)
Muscle Cramps^[6]
Seizures
Smooth, painful lymph gland swelling called a buboe, commonly found in the groin, but may occur in the armpits or neck, most often at the site of the initial infection (bite or scratch)
Pain may occur in the area before the swelling appears
Skin color changes to a pink hue in some very extreme cases

Other symptoms include heavy breathing, continuous vomiting of blood (hematemesis), aching limbs, coughing, and extreme pain. The pain is usually caused by the decay or decomposition of the skin while the person is still alive. Additional symptoms include extreme fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, lenticulae (black dots scattered throughout the body), delirium and coma.

Two other types of Y. pestis plague are pneumonic and septicemic. Pneumonic plague, unlike the bubonic or septicemic, induces coughing and is very infectious, allowing it to be spread person to person.

Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) infected with the Yersinia pestis bacterium which appears as a dark mass in the gut. The foregut of this flea is blocked by a Y. pestis biofilm; when the flea attempts to feed on an uninfected host Y. pestis from the foregut is regurgitated into the wound, causing infection.

Bubonic plague is an infection of the lymphatic system, usually resulting from the bite of an infected flea, Xenopsylla cheopis (the rat flea). In very rare circumstances, as in the septicemic plague, the disease can be transmitted by direct contact with infected tissue or exposure to the cough of another human. The fleas are often found on rodents such as rats and mice, and seek out other prey when their rodent hosts die. The bacteria began its life harmlessly living in the digestive tracts of mammals. The ability to propagate was dependent only upon its ability to travel from mammal host to mammal host. The bacteria remained harmless to the flea, allowing the new host to spread the bacteria. The bacteria form aggregates in the gut of infected fleas and this results in the flea regurgitating ingested blood, which is now infected, into the bite site of a rodent or human host. Once established, bacteria rapidly spread to the lymph nodes and multiply.

Y. pestis bacilli can resist phagocytosis and even reproduce inside phagocytes and kill them. As the disease progresses, the lymph nodes can haemorrhage and become swollen and necrotic. Bubonic plague can progress to lethal septicemic plague in some cases. The plague is also known to spread to the lungs and become the disease known as the pneumonic plague, This form of the disease is highly communicable as the bacteria can be transmitted in droplets emitted when coughing or sneezing.

Treatment

Several classes of antibiotics are effective in treating bubonic plague. These include aminoglycosides such as streptomycin and gentamicin, tetracyclines (especially doxycycline), and the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin. Mortality associated with treated cases of bubonic plague is about 1-15%, compared to a mortality rate of 40-60% in untreated cases.^[7]

People potentially infected with the plague need immediate treatment and should be given antibiotics within 24 hours of the first symptoms to prevent death. Other treatments include oxygen, intravenous fluids, and respiratory support. People who have had contact with anyone infected by pneumonic plague are given prophylactic antibiotics.^[8] Using the broad-based antibiotic streptomycin has proven to be dramatically successful against the bubonic plague within 12 hours of infection.^[9]

Laboratory testing is required in order to diagnose and confirm plague. Ideally, confirmation is through the identification of Y. pestis culture from a patient sample. Confirmation of infection can be done by examining serum taken during the early and late stages of infection. To quickly screen for the Y. pestis antigen in patients, rapid dipstick tests have been developed for field use.^[10]

History

BUBONIC PLAGUE VICTIMS

Bubonic plague victims in a mass grave
from 1720-1721 in Martigues, France

Early outbreaks

Main articles: Plague of Justinian, Black Death, and Third plague pandemic

The first recorded epidemic ravaged the Byzantine Empire during the sixth century, and was named the Plague of Justinian after emperor Justinian I, who was infected but survived through extensive treatment.^[11]^[12] The epidemic is estimated to have killed approximately 50 million people in the Roman Empire alone.^[13] The historian Procopius wrote, in Volume II of History of the Wars, his encounter with the plague and the effect it had on the rising empire. In the spring of 542, the plague arrived in Constantinople, working its way from port city to port city and spreading through the Mediterranean, later migrating inland eastward into Asia Minor and west into Greece and Italy. Because the infectious disease spread inland by the transferring of merchandise through Justinian’s efforts in acquiring luxurious goods of the time and exporting supplies, his capital became the leading exporter of the Bubonic plague. Procopius, in his work Secret History, declared that Justinian was a demon of an emperor who either created the plague himself or was being punished for his sinfulness.

Black Death

Main article: Black Death

In the Late Middle Ages (1340-1400) Europe experienced the most deadly disease outbreak in Western history when the Black Death, the infamous pandemic of bubonic plague, hit in 1347, killing a third of the human population. It is commonly believed that society subsequently became more violent as the mass mortality rate cheapened life and thus increased warfare, crime, popular revolt, waves of flagellants, and persecution.^[14]

The Black Death originated in or near China and spread from Italy and then throughout other European countries. Research published in 2002 suggests that it began in the spring of 1346 in the steppe region, where a plague reservoir stretches from the north-western shore of the Caspian Sea into southern Russia. The Mongols had cut off the trade route, the Silk Road, between China and Europe which halted the spread of the Black Death from eastern Russia to Western Europe. The epidemic began with an attack that Mongols launched on the Italian merchant's last trading station in the region, Caffa in the Crimea.^[9] In the autumn of 1346, plague broke out among the besiegers and from them penetrated into the town. When spring arrived, the Italian merchants fled on their ships, unknowingly carrying the Black Death. Carried by the fleas on rats, the plague initially spread to humans near the Black Sea and then outwards to the rest of Europe as a result of people fleeing from one area to another.

There were many ethno-medical beliefs of prevention methods for avoiding the Black Death. One of the most famous ideas was that by walking around with flowers in or around their nose people would be able to "ward off the stench and perhaps the evil that afflicted them." There were also many religious prevention methods. One such method used was to carve the symbol of the cross onto the front door of a house with the words "Lord have mercy on us" near it.^[15]

Pistoia, a city in Italy, even went as far as enacting rules and regulations on the city and its inhabitants to keep it safe from the Black Death. The rules stated that no one was allowed to visit any plague-infected area and if they did they were not allowed back into the city. Some other rules were that no linen or woollen goods were to be imported into the city and no corpses were to be buried in the city. However, despite strict enforcement of the rules, the city eventually became infected.^[16]

While Europe was devastated by the disease, the rest of the world fared much better. In India, populations rose from a population of 91 million in 1300, to 97 million in 1400, to 105 million in 1500. Also sub-Saharan Africa and Scandinavia remained largely unaffected by the plagues.^[17

Traditional treatment

Main article: Miasma theory

Medieval doctors thought the plague was created by air corrupted by humid weather, decaying unburied bodies, and fumes produced by poor sanitation. The recommended treatment of the plague was a good diet, rest, and relocating to a non-infected environment so the individual could get access to clean air. This did help, but not for the reasons the doctors of the time thought. In actuality, because they recommended moving away from unsanitary conditions, people were, in effect, getting away from the rodents that harbored the fleas carrying the infection. However, this also helped to spread the infection to new areas previously non-infected.

Later outbreaks

Directions for searchers, Poona (now Pune) plague of 1897

The next few centuries were marked by several local outbreaks of lesser severity. The Great Plague of Seville (1647), the Great Plague of London (1665–1666), the Great Plague of Vienna (1679), Great Plague of Riga (1710) and the Great Plague of Marseilles (1720), were the last major outbreaks of the bubonic plague in Europe.

The plague resurfaced in the mid-19th century; like the Black Death, the Third Pandemic began in Central Asia. The disease killed millions in China and India — mostly a British possession at the time — and then spread worldwide. The outbreak continued into the early 20th century. In 1897, the city of Poona (now Pune) in India was severely affected by the outbreak.

In 1899, the islands of Hawaii were also hit by the plague.^[18] The first evidence of the disease was found in Honolulu's Chinatown on Oahu.^[19] It was located very close to the island's piers, and rats in cargo ships from China were able to land on the Hawaiian islands unseen. As the rats, hosts for disease-carrying fleas, made their way deeper into the city, people started to fall ill. On December 12, 1899, the first case was confirmed. The Board of Health then quickly thought of ways to prevent the disease from spreading even further inland. Their solution was to burn down any buildings in Chinatown suspected of containing a source of the disease. On December 31, 1899, the board set the first fire. They had originally planned to burn only a few targeted buildings, and thought they could control the flames as each building was finished, but the fire got out of control, burning down un-targeted neighboring buildings. The resulting fire caused many of Chinatown's homes to be destroyed and an estimated 4,000 people were left homeless.^[20]

Australia suffered 12 major plague outbreaks between 1900 and 1925 originating from shipping.^[21] Research by Australian medical officers Thompson, Armstrong and Tidswell contributed to understanding the spread of Yersinia pestis to humans by fleas from infected rats.^[22]

In 1994, a plague outbreak in five Indian states caused an estimated 700 infections (including 52 deaths) and triggered a large migration of Indians within India as they tried to avoid the plague.

In 1994 and 2010 cases were reported in Peru.^[23] In 2010 a case was reported in Oregon, United States.^[24]

In 2012, cases were reported in Oregon and Colorado,^[25]^[26] including a 7-year-old girl who contracted Bubonic plague while camping in southwest Colorado.^[27]

In September 2012 a herdsman in China (Sichuan province, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) was reported to have died of the disease after finding a dead marmot and eating it.^[28]

Biological warfare

Some of the earliest instances of biological warfare were said to have been product of the plague, as armies of the 14th century were recorded catapulting diseased corpses over the walls of towns and villages in order to spread the pestilence.

Later, plague was used during the Second Sino-Japanese War as a bacteriological weapon by the Imperial Japanese Army. These weapons were provided by Shirō Ishii's units and used in experiments on humans before being used on the field. For example, in 1940, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombed Ningbo with fleas carrying the bubonic plague.^[29]^[30] During the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials, the accused, such as Major General Kiyashi Kawashima, testified that, in 1941, some 40 members of Unit 731 air-dropped plague-contaminated fleas on Changde. These operations caused epidemic plague outbreaks.^[31]

Footnotes

^ "Plague, Overview". Health Topics A to Z. http://allcountries.org/health/plague.html. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
^ Haensch, Stephanie; Raffaella Bianucci, Michel Signoli, Minoarisoa Rajerison, Michael Schultz, Sacha Kacki,, Marco Vermunt, Darlene A. Weston, Derek Hurst, Mark Achtman, Elisabeth Carniel, Barbara Bramanti (2010-09). Besansky, Nora J.. ed. "Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death". PLoS Pathogens 6 (10): e1001134. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1001134. PMC 2951374. PMID 20949072. http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001134. Retrieved 16 November 2010. "We confirm that Y. pestis caused the Black Death and later epidemics on the entire European continent over the course of four centuries. Furthermore, on the basis of 17 single nucleotide polymorphisms plus the absence of a deletion in glpD gene, our aDNA results identified two previously unknown but related clades of Y. pestis associated with distinct medieval mass graves. These findings suggest that plague was imported to Europe on two or more occasions, each following a distinct route. These two clades are ancestral to modern isolates of Y. pestis biovars Orientalis and Medievalis. Our results clarify the etiology of the Black Death and provide a paradigm for a detailed historical reconstruction of the infection routes followed by this disease."
^ Bowsky, William (1971). The Black Death: A Turning Point in History?. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-085000-4.
^ Bridbury, A.R. (1983). Economic Growth: England in the Later Middle Ages. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-24066-9.
^ Inglesby TV, Dennis DT, Henderson DA, et al. (May 2000). "Plague as a biological weapon: medical and public health management. Working Group on Civilian Biodefense". JAMA 283 (17): 2281–90. doi:10.1001/jama.283.17.2281. PMID 10807389.
^ "Plague". Healthagen, LLC. http://www.itriagehealth.com/disease/plague-(bacteria-yersinia-infection). Retrieved 4/1/11.
^ "Plague". http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/829233-overview. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
^ "Plague". Healthagen, LLC. http://www.itriagehealth.com/disease/plague-(bacteria-yersinia-infection). Retrieved 4 April 2011.
^ ^a ^b Echenberg,Myron (2002). Pestis Redux: The Initial Years of the Third Bubonic Plague Pandemic, 1894-1901. Journal of World History,vol 13,2
^ "Plague, Laboratory testing". Health Topics A to Z. http://allcountries.org/health/plague.html. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
^ Little (2007), pp. 8-15.
^ McCormick (2007), pp. 290-312.
^ ^a ^b Moorshead Magazines, Limited. "The Plague Of Justinian." History Magazine 11.1 (2009): 9-12. History Reference Center
^ Cohn, Samuel K.(2002). The Black Death: End of a Paradigm. American Historical Review, vol 107, 3, pg 703-737
^ Name *. "Mee Jr, Charles L. (2011). "The Black Death, a bubonic plague of great dimensions-part 2." Word Focus". Wordfocus.com. http://wordfocus.com/word-black-death-pt2.html. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ Name *. "Mee Jr., Charles L. "The Black Death, a Bubonic Plague of Great Dimensions – Part 2 | WordFocus.com."Wordfocus.com | English Vocabulary Words Derived from Latin and Greek Prefixes | Etymology. Web. 02 Dec. 2011". Wordfocus.com. http://wordfocus.com/word-black-death-pt2.html. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ Reaching Out: Expanding Horizons of Cross-Cultural Interaction
^ Discovery News Website, retrieved on December 6, 2011
^ "Hawaii for Visitors, retrieved on December 6, 2011". Hawaiiforvisitors.com. http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/oahu/events/chinatown-honolulu-fire.htm. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ "The Honolulu Advertiser, retrieved on December 6, 2011". The.honoluluadvertiser.com. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/150/sesq2plagueandfire. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ "Bubonic Plague comes to Sydney in 1900". Sydney Medical School - Online Museum. University of Sydney. 2012. http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/museum/mwmuseum/index.php/Bubonic_Plague_comes_to_Sydney_in_1900. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
^ Thompson, J. Ashburton (1901). "A Contribution to the Aetiology of Plague". The Journal of Hygiene (London) 1 (2): 153–167. PMC 2235949. PMID 20474113. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235949/. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
^ "One Dead from Plague in Northern Peru". Laht.com. http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=361749&CategoryId=14095. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
^ David Nogueras (1 October 2010). "Rare Case Of Bubonic Plague Shows Up In Lake County". News.opb.org. http://news.opb.org/article/14656-rare-case-bubonic-plague-shows-lake-county/. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
^ Jo Adetunji (2012-06-15). "The Guardian Newspaper, retrieved on June 15, 2012". Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/15/plague-patient-critical-condition-oregon?newsfeed=true. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ Allison Jackson (2012-09-06). "Bubonic plague in Colorado: 7-year-old contracts disease while camping". Alaska Dispatch. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/7-year-old-contracts-bubonic-plague-while-camping-colorado. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ "girl recovering from bubonic plague". FoxNews. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/09/05/colorado-girl-recovering-from-bubonic-plague/Colorado. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ "GlobalTimes.cn". GlobalTimes.cn. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/732646.shtml. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
^ Japan triggered bubonic plague outbreak, doctor claims
^ A time-line of World War II, Scaruffi Piero. Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda and Prince Mikasa received a special screening by Shirō Ishii of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic dissemination over Ningbo in 1940. (Daniel Barenblatt, A Plague upon Humanity, 2004, p.32.)
^ Daniel Barenblatt, A Plague upon Humanity., 2004, pages 220–221.

References

Echenberg, Myron J. (2007). Plague Ports: The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague, 1894-1901. New York, NY: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-2232-6. OCLC 70292105.
Little, Lester K. (2007). "Life and Afterlife of the First Plague Pandemic." In: Little, Lester K. editor. (2007), Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–750. Cambridge University Press. (2007). ISBN 978-0-521-84639-4 (hardback); ISBN 978-0-521-71897-4 (paperback).
McCormick, Michael (2007). "Toward a Molecular History of the Justinian Pandemic." In: Little, Lester K. editor. (2007), Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–750. Cambridge University Press. (2007). ISBN 978-0-521-84639-4 (hardback); ISBN 978-0-521-71897-4 (paperback).
"Bubonic Plague Originated in China", Discovery News,1 November 2010. Retrieved on 6 December 2011.
"Bubonic Plague Fire Destroyed Honolulu's Chinatown" Hawaii for Visitors. Retrieved on 6 December 2011.
"Bubonic Plauge and the Chinatown Fire Honolulu Advertiser, 7 July 2005. Retrieved on 6 December 2011.

Plague Graves Unearthed: Rail Dig May Shed Light On Black Death Bacteria

Medieval Knight Found Under Parking Lot In Scotland; Mysterious Remains Thrill Archeologists