The Black Death

[Aggers]

Is it about to come around again?

Can we escape this grim reaper?

A sobering thought.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23460709

[Suff]

Antibiotics are the great leveller. No instance of the plague in the modern world has been fatal since the introduction of penicillin. At least if they were diagnosed fast enough.

We need to fear resistant strains, but as there is little interaction between humans and the fleas, that's unlikely.

We also didn't have flamethrowers, biological weapons and gene splicing back in the middle ages.

Makes a good story, but reality is that we have bigger problems than a bacterial infection. Like the fact that the number of viral cures we have is 0. Yes we have vaccines, but we have no cures.

You never hear them talking about that one do you????

[miasmum]

We do have antivirals though. That is why HIV isn't the killer it was. Plus we have antivirals for shingles, chickenpox, herpes and I am sure there are more

[Workingman]

I suppose that the history we were taught in school makes the Plague stand out in our subconscious. We all know about the Black Death.

I am more concerned about the new kids on the block all trying to leap from species to species. We have already had SARS, bird fu, swine flu and now we have Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Not much has been said about MERS, but it has a death rate of 50%, thankfully it has only infected 90 people so far.

One day something will make an unstoppable leap from animal to human.

[pederito1]

I hope the new strain of yp if that is what it is, is not antibio resistant already. Many animals there particularly take them anyway.

[Rodo]

I don't think that news is going to do much for their tourist trade!