Is the Black Death and HIV related?

No, they are not related. The Black Death, also known as the Plague, is caused by a bacteria we call Yersinia pestis. The bacteria is usually transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten another infected vector, most commonly a rat. read more

LONDON Several teams of scientists around the world have, for some time, been studying the possibility that a genetic mutation perpetuated by the organism responsible for bubonic plague, or the Black Death, in the Middle Ages - Yersinia pestis - might give people now carrying the mutation increased resistance to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) compared to non-carriers. read more

Black Death and AIDS are global pandemics that have captured the popular imagination, both attracting extravagant hypotheses to account for their origins and geographical distributions. Medical scientists have recently attempted to connect these two great pandemics. read more