This 5,000-year-old man had the earliest known strain of plague

(Cell Press) The oldest strain of Yersinia pestis -- the bacteria behind the plague that caused the Black Death, which may have killed as much as half of Europe's population in the 1300s -- has been found in the remains of a 5,000-year-old hunter-gatherer. A genetic analysis publishing June 29 in the journal Cell Reports reveals that this ancient strain was likely less contagious and not as deadly as its medieval version.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news