Plague News and Research

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GLP-1 drugs may reduce lung scarring from Long COVID in diabetic patients

GLP-1 agonists have become popular treatments for weight loss and type 2 diabetes, and newer studies suggest other health benefits as well.

9 Jul 2026

Plague emerged earlier than thought and hit hunter-gatherers hard

Ancient DNA from 46 Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers revealed two early plague outbreak phases about 5,500 years ago, with Yersinia pestis detected in 18 individuals. The findings suggest these basal plague strains caused lethal, child-heavy outbreaks long before dense farming societies, cities, or classical flea-borne bubonic plague emerged.

21 Jun 2026

Prehistoric plague killed hunter gatherers 5,500 years ago

Plague is commonly associated with rats, crowded medieval cities, and the epidemics that swept across Europe during and after the Middle Ages.

17 Jun 2026

Climate change could expand chikungunya into temperate regions worldwide

Chikungunya ('to become contorted' in the Kimakonde language, named after the characteristic joint ache) is classified as one of the neglected tropical diseases by the World Health Organization.

27 May 2026

High-resolution model identifies nationwide plague risk zones in Madagascar

Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. Plague (Yersinia pestis) remains endemic in Madagascar and causes recurrent outbreaks leading to substantial mortality.

7 Apr 2026

Researchers discover new virulence regulator of diarrheal pathogen

Pathogenic bacteria often delay the activation of their virulence program until they are inside the host. Researchers have identified a new mechanism that controls this process.

2 Apr 2026

AI system spots Parkinson’s signs in voice, walking and drawings

Combining gait, handwriting, and speech analysis, this AI framework enhances early Parkinson's disease detection, addressing clinical challenges effectively.

3 Mar 2026

The CDC just sidelined these childhood vaccines. Here’s what they prevent.

The federal government has drastically scaled back the number of recommended childhood immunizations, sidelining six routine vaccines that have safeguarded millions from serious diseases, long-term disability, and death.

6 Jan 2026

Genes and biological networks that drive long COVID risk

This study merges causal genetics and network theory, revealing 32 genes linked to long COVID, offering insights for diagnostics and personalized therapies.

19 Dec 2025

A massive mid-14th-century volcanic eruption likely triggered the spread of the "Black Death"

A large volcanic eruption or cluster of eruptions in the mid-1340s triggered severe climate anomalies that drove harvest failures across parts of Europe. These shocks reshaped Mediterranean grain trade routes, likely introducing plague-infected fleas into Italian ports and helping ignite the Black Death.

9 Dec 2025

New analysis reveals fundamental flaws in widely used measures of biological aging

A landmark review published today in Genomic Psychiatry challenges researchers to fundamentally reconsider how the field measures and conceptualizes biological aging.

3 Dec 2025

Lessons from COVID-19 could help communities better prepare for the next pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided researchers with a wealth of information on contemporary successes and failures in combating an emerging pathogen.

28 Oct 2025

Emergency departments emerge as key entry point for hospice and palliative care

One-third of Americans will visit an emergency department, or ED, within a month of their death. While EDs are primarily purposed to provide emergent care, they're increasingly becoming an initial touchpoint for hospice and palliative care, or HPC, referrals and consultations, according to a new study from several researchers at Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences.

25 Sep 2025

Bacteria use density switch to balance virulence and growth

Pathogens are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics. With the goal of developing new therapeutic approaches to treat bacterial infections more effectively in the future, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Max Planck Institute in Marburg investigated the plague-related bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica.

12 Sep 2025

4,000-year-old sheep tooth sheds light on enigmatic Eurasian plague

Around 5,000 years ago, a mysterious form of plague spread throughout Eurasia, only to disappear 2,000 years later.

11 Aug 2025

Black Death victims offer clues to childhood malnutrition and adult disease

The Black Death arrived on the shores of England in May 1348 and, in less than two years, spread throughout the country, killing an estimated 2 million people.

31 Jul 2025

Infectious disease outbreaks erode trust in political institutions

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn the attention to the far-reaching social implications of emerging infectious diseases, bringing to mind similarly impactful events like the Black Plague in early modern Europe or the Spanish Flu after World War I.

15 Jul 2025

Scientists trace leprosy’s roots in South America back 4,000 years

Researchers have recovered and sequenced Mycobacterium lepromatosis genomes from 4,000-year-old human remains in Chile, providing the first molecular evidence of ancient leprosy in the Americas. The findings reveal the deep evolutionary roots and complex spread of Hansen’s disease long before European contact.

1 Jul 2025

Inflammaging may be a lifestyle phenomenon rather than a universal aging trait

Inflammation, long considered a hallmark of aging, may not be a universal human experience, according to a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

1 Jul 2025

Ancient DNA sheds light on the origins of leprosy in the Americas

Hansen's Disease, more commonly known as leprosy, is a chronic disease that can lead to physical impairment. Today it exists in over 100 countries, and while the infection is treatable, access to treatment varies widely with socioeconomic conditions.

30 Jun 2025