Identifying the Black Death

In just four years in the mid-fourteenth century, the medieval pandemic of 'Black Death' killed 17-28 million Europeans, or 30-40% of the total population. Further resurgences later in the century eliminated 90% of the households around Montpellier in southern France. It is in this region that Raoult et al. went searching for the causative agent of the Black Death. Although this agent has been presumed to be Yersinia pestis, the pattern of the disease's spread has led others to suggest alternative agents. In the November 7 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Raoult et al. use 'suicide' PCR to amplify DNA remnants of Yersinia pestis from tooth pulp, thus providing evidence that Yersinia was the agent of Black Death (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2000, 97:12800-12803). The teeth came from a grave that is dated to the time of the pandemic, and termed a 'catastrophe' grave because it contains ...