Plague may have originated in China

The Black Death had its origins in China more than 2,600 years ago and a Chinese admiral, who may have inspired the tales of Sinbad the Sailor, helped spread the disease to Africa. An international team of scientists studied 17 strains of Yersinia Pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague, from sites around the world. They then used their data to draw up a common family tree, showing how the different strains had mutated, over time, from a common root. The tree shows a branch of the disease splitting off about 728 years ago, around the time the Black Death struck. The Black Death was the middle of three great waves of plague. The first strain appeared in the sixth century during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. That plague is thought by historians to have peaked in the 14th century and killed up to a third of the population of Europe. The third wave of plague began in China in the late 19th century, spreading along shipping lines from Hong Kong and hitting San Francisco in 1900. All three waves have the same common ancestor and bubonic plague may have been carried to South East Asia, India and East Africa by rats aboard the ships of Zheng He in the 15th century, the Chinese version of Captain Cook who is thought to be the inspiration for Sinbad the Sailor.