January 8, 2025: Scientists are developing a Black Death vaccine amid concerns that the ancient disease could re-emerge.

Researchers behind the Covid jab believe that their inoculation will be the first approved in the UK to combat the infection – which is also known as bubonic plague.

The Black Death has killed 200 million people around the world in the past and doctors are worried that a super-strength version could appear and claim even more lives.

A trial of the vaccine on 40 healthy adults began in 2021 and has shown that the jab is safe, although the results will be assessed by global experts before testing continues this year.

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “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 by person to person spread.”