The outbreak helped collapse of the Roman Empire?

1,500 year-old tomb in Bavaria, Germany, this turned out to save the bacteria. Researchers suspect outbreaks caused by these bacteria play a role in the collapse of the Roman Empire (Imperium Romanum).

The outbreak of an infectious disease that spreads widely and rapidly. Its use as the first biological weapon was performed by the Mongols that spread the germs into the city center by using the catapult.

An artist’s recreation of the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I – which was decimated by the plague. (Picture from: http://www.secretsofthefed.com/)

Yersinia pestis is a bacterium that causes plague associated with the two deadliest pandemic in history.

• The first pandemic is a major outbreak that lasted throughout the 14th until the 17th century. In this interval also occur the Black Death that killed two-thirds of the population of Europe in the mid 14th century.
• The second pandemic occurred in the 19th century and the 20th, began in China and spread to Africa, America, Australia, Europe, and some parts of Asia.

New evidence suggests the Black Death bacterium 
caused the Justinianic Plague of the sixth to eighth 
centuries. The pademic, named after the Byzantine 
emperor Justinian I, killed more than 100 million people. 
 (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/)

Although previous research to know the link between humanitarian disasters and outbreaks, experts still doubt whether such bacteria contribute to Justianic outbreaks that occurred during the 6th to the 8th century. The pandemic name is taken from the name of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I and kill 100 million people. Some historians suspect that the pandemic plays a role in the Roman Empire collapse.

To verify this conjecture, the experts examined the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in human teeth from the 6th century. Human skeletons from the past is obtained from the cemetery in Bavaria. The result, researchers found the Yersinia pestis bacterium.

"We know the bacteria that causes outbreaks in the past. It is fun," says Barbara Bramanti, a geneticist and archeology of the Johannes Gutenberg University. Other molecular microbiologist from the Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology also expressed their happiness. According to them, this finding is a great achievement because the researcher was able to uncover the bacteria that had been buried for 1,500 years.

The Justinianic plague spread along the Alps and kill the Bavarian which became part of the Roman Empire. On DNA analysis showed the Bavaria pandemic were came from Asia. It is different from previous studies that assumed the plague was brought from Africa and then spread to the Mediterranean and the European. The results are published at the PLoS Pathogens online journal on May 2, 2013.

Researchers at the Institute of Anthropology at Johannes Gutenberg University analysed ancient DNA from the teeth of 19 different sixth-century skeletons from a medieval graveyard in Bavaria, Germany, of people who apparently succumbed to the Justinianic Plague. (Picture from: http://www.secretsofthefed.com/)

Despite the hundreds of years ago, does not mean that the epidemic has vanished from the Earth. The World Health Organization (WHO) said thousands of the outbreaks cases throughout the year have occurred in the world. Modern medicine is done by using the antibiotics to eradicate the outbreak. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | LIVESCIENCE | ANTON WILLIAM | KORAN TEMPO 4228]

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