Black Death 700 years ago affects your health now

Black Death 700 years ago affects your health now The devastation of the plague pandemic left such an incredible genetic mark on humanity that it's still affecting our health nearly 700 years later.

Up to half of people died when the Black Death swept through Europe in the mid-1300s.

A pioneering study analysing the DNA of centuries-old skeletons found mutations that helped people survive the plague.

But those same mutations are linked to auto-immune diseases afflicting people today. BBC News

See also:

• Evolution of immune genes is associated with the Black Death (open access) Nature