Black Death survivors lived longer and healthier lives than people who lived before the 1347 epidemic, a new study finds.
"Instead of complaining that the rose bush is full of thorns, be happy the thorn bush has roses." - Proverb
New-found evidence surrounding the Black Death of 1347, which wiped out more than 30 percent of the European population, is a great example of seeing the good in the bad. Researchers from the University of Southern California found that this tragic incident did have a silver lining after all.
According to the findings of a new study, survivors of the epidemic lived longer and healthier lives than people who lived before the event struck. The findings are the result of a decade long study where University of South Carolina anthropologist Sharon DeWitte analyzed more than 1,000 skeletons of individuals who lived before and after the plague struck. The skeletons were collected from London cemeteries. After analyzing the skeletons' age, she modeled age estimates, mortality hazards, and birth rate data for the samples. She found that the post-Black Death samples had a higher proportion of older adults, suggesting that survival may have improved following the epidemic.
In centuries before the Black Death, only about 10 percent of people lived after 70 years of age. This number increased to 20 percent post the plague.
Earlier this year, a study showed that descendants of the plague-affected population underwent certain alternations in some immune genes, according to Live Science.
The Reason?
Previous studies have said that the plague killed indiscriminately. However, another study found that the bacteria causing the epidemic infected the old and the weak. Hence, it wiped out the weak population of the country. This led to the survival of the fittest - one explanation why life expectancy increased after the plague.
Another possible explanation could be that since the population reduced after the epidemic, survivors had more resources at their disposal. Better food and improved standards of living resulted in healthier lives.
Reseachers looked into how the bubonic plague shaped population demographics and health for generations. Getting a better insight of the epidemic can help scientists better understand how certain diseases emerged and how they impact a person's health.
"My Black Death research is rare because the samples that I use are exceedingly rare. There are only a handful of large cemetery samples that are clearly linked to the 14th century Black Death," DeWitte said, according to Daily Mail.
"And, most medieval historical records only tell about the experience of men. We have little information about the experiences of women and children and the poor in general during medieval plague epidemics, including the Black Death. My bioarchaeological data allows us to understand how the population in general fared during and after the epidemic."
The Black Death Epidemic
The plague was caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. It was most destructive in its initial four years, killing more than 200 million years. The plague originated in central Asia before moving to Europe in 1346. It took the continent's population more than 150 years to recover from the epidemic.
The plague continued to reoccur in Europe till the 19th Century. Even today, the bacteria continue to cause bubonic plague. In the 1900s, the plague killed thousands of people. Africa was the most affected country. In Congo, 10,581 people contracted plague, followed by Madagascar with 7,182 cases and Zambia with 1,309 cases.
"These events, although showing progress, suggest that plague will persist in rodent reservoirs mostly in African countries burdened by poverty and civil unrest, causing death when patients fail to receive prompt antimicrobial treatment," authors of a 2013 study said, according to Live Science.
An Interesting Fact
Scholars believe that the nursery rhyme "Ring around the Rosy" was inspired from the Black Death. The first line of the poem represents the "bubo" that formed due to the infection. The swelling forms a "ring". The center turns black and is surrounded by a red rash, symbolizing the "rosy."
The infection is characterized by a foul smell and victims used air fresheners to camouflage this odor - hence the "pocket full of posies."
The third stanza "Atch chew! Atch-chew" represents the sound of a sneezes, symbolizing ill health. The final line of the rhyme "we all fall down" signifies the arrival of death. The "we" in this line symbolizes the apocalyptic nature of the disease.
The current study was published online in PLOS ONE. A related article was also published in the current issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The study was funded by an NFS grant, the Ethel-Jane Westfeldt Bunting Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
