Yersinia pestis

The Black Plague, caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria, remains one of the deadliest pandemics in human history

China reports two cases of the bubonic plague recorded on August 7. The infected are a father and daughter, probably infected by another family member - the mother, Reuters reported.

Everyone who came into contact with them has been quarantined. They showed no symptoms of the disease, local authorities reported. The infected are from the Inner Mongolia region, bTV clarifies.

Scientists in Europe say they have pinpointed the origins of the Black Death, a bacterial plague that wiped out half of the continent's population in the 14th century.

The findings counter other theories that the disease, which caused repeated outbreaks into the early 19th century and also left its mark across the Middle East and North Africa, might have first emerged in China.

The plague has ravaged humanity for thousands of years, wiping out as much as half of Europe's population in the Black Death, and scientists have long puzzled over its origins and evolutionary history.

An international team of researchers headed by Germany's Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, with Greek archaeogenticist Maria A. Spyrou, has decoded two 3,800-year-old genomes that suggest a Bronze Age origin for bubonic plague.

The authorities of Madagascar urged citizens to give up the ritual of Famadihana, which is a dance of the dead, because of the plague epidemic.