Scientists who developed the AstraZeneca COVID jab are working on a new vaccine to combat the Black Death amid rising fears the plague could re-emerge.
The plague first hit British shores in 1348 after being spread to Europe by fleas on rats aboard ships from Asia.
Scientists estimate that between a third and a half of Britain’s population were killed by the Black Death in the following year.
During follow-up cases in centuries gone by, more than 200 million lost their lives after contracting one of the deadliest diseases in history.
And scientists fear the plague, which still exists in some parts of the earth, has ‘potential for pandemic spread’ in the near future.
Scientists at Porton Down’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory wrote last year that antimicrobial resistance is creating superbug strains that can’t be countered by standard antibiotics.
Now, the team behind the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine have announced they are making progress on a new injection which could stop the plague developing.
The new vaccine was trialled on 40 healthy adults and has proven to be safe and able to produce an immune response to the often-deadly disease.
Director of the vaccine-developing group, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, said: ‘There are no licensed plague vaccines in the UK.
‘Antibiotics are the only treatment. There are some licensed vaccines in Russia.
‘The risk in the UK is currently very low. Previous historical pandemics that had high mortality were associated with initiation from fleas on rodents but were driven to person spread.’
Global experts are set to examine the results of the tests carried out by scientists before further trials take place later this year.
AstraZeneca first announced they had ‘figured out the winning formula’ with their two-dose Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020.
Just a matter of days later, the United Kingdom approved the emergency use of the injection to combat the virus.
It is estimated that the vaccine saved 6.3 million lives in the year it rolled out.
