Profile

Hi there,

I work for a TV company and I’ve been doing a lot of research into the Black Death and whether it was, in fact, caused by Yersinia pestis or was actually a new emergent haemorrhagic fever like Ebola. I’ve found Susan Scott’s and Christopher Duncan’s – of Liverpool University – work particularly fascinating (see these for more info – http://www.lrbshop.co.uk/return-of-the-black-death_927.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/may/16/health.books). However, as yet I note that no Black Death corpse has been found presevered enough for some of the soft tissues to be intact and therefore the DNA of the disease-causing organism has not been extractable (I spoke with a geneticist formerly of Oxford who found through his work that Yersinia Pestis DNA cannot be extracted from the teeth of Black Death victims, as previously thought).We’re keen to do a programme examining once-and-for-all what the actual cause was, so I wondered if there is any move afoot by anyone in the world to try and find a well-preserved – probably in perma frost – Black death corpse – perhaps from Scandinavia or Iceland – to analyse? I’d be extremely grateful if anyone has any information. Many thanks, Charlie

Admin contact:

Charlie Nicholson

Tags:

molecular biology epidemiology medical geography