Back to Search
Start Over
Mass Burial Genomics Reveals Outbreak of Enteric Paratyphoid Fever in the Late Medieval Trade City Lübeck
- Source :
- iScience, 24(5), iScience 24 (2021) 5, iScience, iScience, Vol 24, Iss 5, Pp 102419-(2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2021.
-
Abstract
- In the Middle Ages, European settlements of all sizes were repeatedly affected by outbreaks of infectious diseases. Some of the outbreaks reached epidemic proportions, the second plague pandemic being the most notorious of all. A Late Medieval mass-burial site next to the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (HGH) in Lubeck, a city of the Hanseatic League, contained the skeletal remains of more than 800 individuals assumed to have died of an infectious disease, most probably of the plague. However, Lubeck was ravaged by at least six pestilences in the 14 th century alone. We investigated ancient DNA extracts of 92 individuals from the HGH site to determine whether viral or bacterial pathogenic DNA was present that would help identify the cause of death. Metagenomic screening revealed evidence of an infection with Mi>Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Paratyphi C, suggesting an epidemic outbreak of enteric paratyphoid fever. A full reconstruction was possible for three S. Paratyphi C genomes that showed a close similarity to another strain from 1200 CE Norway. Based on radiocarbon dates, we determined the enteric paratyphoid fever outbreak in Lubeck to have occurred between 1360 and 1400 CE, historical records indicating the year 1367 CE as the most probable date. Our results also showed that the disease victims were people of northern and eastern European descent, confirming that Hanseatic Lubeck was an important trading centre for the Baltic region.
- Subjects :
- Serotype
Bioinformatics
Science
Zoology
Plague (disease)
Microbiology
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Bioinformatica
0502 economics and business
Pandemic
medicine
Life Science
050207 economics
Historical record
030304 developmental biology
0303 health sciences
Multidisciplinary
050208 finance
biology
05 social sciences
Paratyphoid fever
Paleontology
Outbreak
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
3. Good health
Eastern european
Geography
Ancient DNA
Salmonella enterica
Infectious disease (medical specialty)
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15565068 and 25890042
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2b01a42d63cbac6e5dbb48bb45d6283c