How is the Black Death spread? New findings revealed – and it’s not all about rats

Black Death, also known as the , devastated human populations in Europe between 1346 and 1353, killing up to 200million people, according to estimates. 

It was widely believed that rats were to blame for spreading the Black Death.

But new research coming out of the University of Oslo and University of Ferrara suggests human “ectoparasites” might be more likely to have caused the epidemic.

In a paper, scientists said: “While it is commonly assumed that rats and their fleas spread plague during the Second Pandemic, here, we show that human ectoparasites, like body lice and human fleas, might be more likely than rats to have caused the rapidly developing epidemics in pre-Industrial Europe.”

The scientists came to their conclusion using mortality data from nine plague outbreaks in Europe between the 14th and 19th centuries.

They created models of how a disease could be spread by rats, by airborne transmission and by fleas and lice on humans and clothes.

They found that, in seven of the cases, there was a closer resemblance between the human body lice model and the outbreak when compared with the other two alternatives.

Professor Nils Stenseth, from the University of Oslo, revealed that the disease spread far too quickly to have been caused by rats.

He told BBC News: “The conclusion was very clear. The lice model fits best.”

“It would be unlikely to spread as fast as it did if it was transmitted by rats.

“It would have to go through this extra loop of the rats, rather than being spread from person to person.”

Doctors in Uganda are scrambling to contain the spread of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a viral disease in the same family as Ebola that can kill up to 40 percent of those it infects. 

Like the Black Death, symptoms of the killer disease include muscle pains, headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding.

The findings come amid fears a new plague is spreading. Last week a young girl died and three others in Uganda succumbed to an “eye-bleeding fever”.