Bubonic Plague, the bacterial infection that killed tens of millions of Europeans in the 14th century, is still around today. Also known as “the Black Death,” the disease claimed the lives of more than 100 million people throughout the Byzantine empire back in the 6th century. Today, the disease exists primarily in wildlife such as squirrels, chipmunks, mice and feral cats, but it can also cross... 

A bubonic plague outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has seen several dozen people succumb to the long-feared disease, which caused Europe’s Black Death pandemic in the 14th century. Multiple cases of the plague were identified in the Biringi area of Ituri Province in northeastern DR Congo between November 15 and December 13, Anne Laudisoit of New York-based NGO, Ecohealth Alliance, told... 

Mongolia has put a district in western Zavkhan Province on indefinite quarantine over a suspected bubonic plague case, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, citing local authorities. The patient in question is a 39-year-old resident of Uliastai district. He experienced high fever, headache, and muscle pain after eating marmot meat with his family a week ago. He has been isolated at a local hospital. At... 

A suspected case of bubonic plague has been registered in China’s north, according to local health authorities. The news comes after two similar cases were detected in neighboring Mongolia. The case was registered at a hospital in China’s Inner Mongolia region, its health commission said in a statement on Sunday. This prompted a third-level warning of a potential epidemic in the region. The alert... 

Pneumonic plague—a deadly airborne disease similar to septicemic plague and bubonic plague—has broken out on Uganda’s border with Democratic Republic of Congo and several fatalities have already been reported, according to the World Health Organization. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Pneumonic plague occurs when the bacterium Yersinia pestis infects the lungs. The Y. Pestis... 

The Anosibe slum area is seen in the Malagasy capital Antananarivo. Malagasy officials have raised the death toll from a recent bubonic plague outbreak to 47 as the bacterial disease spreads through the country. Madagascar’s Health Ministry made the announcement on Monday, and warned that the toll would probably rise over the coming months as it spreads towards the capital Antananarivo. They added... 

The cemetery in Bavaria, Germany (A). The skeleton of a victim of the Plague of Justinian (C). Objects (E) from the grave (B) that helped scientists to estimate the plague victim’s death as occurring between 525 AD and 550 AD. A tooth from which the genome of the plague was extracted (D). Scientists have reconstructed the genome of the first recorded bubonic plague and compared it to two later pandemics.... 

Kazakhstan has stepped up border controls with neighboring Kyrgyzstan, while China has refused to send its athletes to a meet there following news of a Kyrgyz teenager having died from bubonic plague, allegedly getting infected by a local rodent. Kazakhstan has issued a travel warning, urging its citizens not to go to Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Lake resorts because of the recently-registered bubonic...