Editing Black Death (section)

====Summary====
Academic debate continues, but no single alternative explanation for the plague's spread has achieved widespread acceptance.{{sfn|Christakos|Olea|Serre|Wang|2005|pp=110–14}} Many scholars arguing for ''Y. pestis'' as the major agent of the pandemic suggest that its extent and symptoms can be explained by a combination of bubonic plague with other diseases, including [[typhus]], [[smallpox]], and [[respiratory tract infection|respiratory infection]]s. In addition to the bubonic infection, others point to additional [[Sepsis|septicemic]] and [[Pneumonia|pneumonic]] forms of plague, which lengthen the duration of outbreaks throughout the seasons and help account for its high mortality rate and additional recorded symptoms.<ref name="Byrne2004pp21-9">{{harvnb|Byrne|2004|pp=21–29}}</ref> In 2014, [[Public Health England]] announced the results of an examination of 25 bodies exhumed in the [[Clerkenwell]] area of London, as well as of wills registered in London during the period, which supported the pneumonic hypothesis.<ref name="guardian" /> Currently, while [[osteoarchaeology|osteoarcheologist]]s have conclusively verified the presence of ''Y. pestis'' bacteria in burial sites across northern Europe through examination of bones and [[dental pulp]], no other epidemic pathogen has been discovered to bolster the alternative explanations.{{sfn|Snowden|2019|pp=50–51}}