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Article: Model explains bubonic plague's persistence.(research speculates that the bubonic plague never truly goes away, but attacks humans only when the rat population dwindles)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 21, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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After bubonic plague reached Europe in the 14th century, major cities such as Venice enacted strict quarantines intended to keep out infected, shipborne rats. The cities would remain free of the disease for a time, but every decade or so, the plague returned. People have presumed that infected rats had sneaked back into town.
Challenging that assumption, computer modeling of how bubonic plague spreads from rats to people now suggests that the disease never went away. It probably persisted in the rat populations living in the cities, say Matthew J. Keeling and Chris A. Gilligan, both of Cambridge University in England.
Beyond suggesting that bubonic ...