Black Death solved

Black Death solved
A Norwegian researcher has solved the mystery behind the Black Death and developed a vaccine against the plague.

Researcher Egil Lien, a professor at the University of Massachusetts in the USA linked to the Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine at the medical faculty in Trondheim, has discovered the basis for a vaccine against the dreaded plague bacteria Yersinia pestis, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.

"Our discovery explains one of the Black Death's greatest secrets," Lien told NRK. His breakthrough is developing a strain of the bacteria that is easily identified by the body's immune system.

"The bacteria has an incredibly clever way of fooling the immune system. It changes its surface so that the immune system doesn't manage to recognize it, and in this way is allowed to reproduce en masse," Lien said.

US authorities have long feared that the plague bacteria could be used in biological warfare. And even though Lien emphasizes that the chances of the world experiencing the plague again is extremely unlikely, he believes that the discovery is a step towards fighting the epidemics that do rage today.

"We believe that many bacteria work in the same way," Lien said, and said that many forms of Chlamydia appear to have the same surface as the test bacteria.