United Press International (May 23, 10:05 PM) Two researchers in Great Britain are challenging long-held views about one of history's worst killers, the Black Death, and say it could return.
The infectious disease killed 23 million people in the Middle Ages and was long thought to be caused by a now well understood bacterial disease, the bubonic plague.
But Professor Christopher Duncan and Dr. Susan Scott of Liverpool University have outlined in a new book their theory that a virus was responsible.
We believe this virus is merely lying in wait, ready to strike again, Duncan told BBC News Online.
The Black Death is thought to have caused the deaths of up to 200 million people worldwide over the past 1,500 years.
Bubonic plague still affects between 1,000 and 3,000 people a year and, if caught early, can be cured with antibiotics.
In their research, Duncan and Scott studied original parish records, wills and diaries to create a profile of the killer disease.
They also examined eyewitness accounts.
Dr. Michael Smith, a leading expert on plague, played down the claims. The body of evidence suggests that it was bubonic plague, he said, and the evidence now includes DNA comparisons.
