Penner wrote:Today this mutation is found people from Scandvania and Russia because (and this is still a theory) the plagued lingered in those places until the 19th century.Speaker to Animals wrote:Penner wrote:
That is a rare mutation, CCR5-delta 32 , and, no I don't think that a third of white people have it. Instead it's like 10% of all white people AND I believe in order to get it you have to have both parents carrying it as well.
It used to be most of us, but after the Black Death disappeared, nothing selects for it. It's about 30%, depending upon the population, and yeah, it's mainly a European mutation, though it's possible the mutation can work its way into other races (but without some selective pressure in the environment, that's pretty unlikely).
That would be interesting. The last book I read on it, which argued the Black Death was in fact a virus, said the last outbreak was in Britain in the 1600s. But by the last outbreak, Smallpox already replaced it as the big killer.
It comes out of the Levant. First suspect outbreak in Europe was the Athenian plague during the Spartan siege. They relied on shipping to get supplies into the city, and I guess they were trading with the Levant for grains. Next hit was the Antonine Plague. Roman soldiers brought it back from campaigns in the Levant. Plague of Justinian was the third suspected outbreak. Always from contact with the Levant.