The Plague that struck Europe and Asia in the 14th century was probably the most devastating disease or natural disaster the world ever faced. The Bubonic Plague or Black Death killed an estimated 25 million people from 1347 to 1352 in Europe which accounted for one third of Europe’s population.??-1 It is believed to have started in Asia and then spread to Europe. The Bubonic Plague was not just limited to this period in time. It would reappear through the centuries including the Great Plague of London around 1656 in which 20% of London residents died from it.??-2 Although some of the latter breakouts of the plague were also catastrophic, this paper will primarily focus on the plague from the 1300s. More specifically, this paper will …show more content…
It is when the fleas jump to human hosts that the disease is spread. The strain of bacteria was not officially known until 1894 when it was identified as Yersinia Pestis. ??-2 Yersinia pestis attacks and disables human’s immune systems and then starts multiplying within the body. Yersinia pestis is a very irregular bacteria that acquired its genetic makeup from other bacteria and viruses. This has led modern day scientists to believe that Yersinia pestis has evolved and strengthened over time and is strong enough to survive in many different environments and hosts.??-12 Early symptoms included headaches, overall weakness, a white coating on the tongue followed by large swellings in the groin and armpit area that oozed blood and pus. This was followed by other symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, pain, hemorrhaging under the skin, excessive sneezing, and then the nervous system breaks down, death.??-5 The term “God bless you” originated from Pope Gregory VII when someone sneezes as plague victims are constantly sneezing and spreading germs.??-12 From the onset of the plague to death is only about five days. A popular nursery rhyme depicts the course of the …show more content…
(refers to the death dance as they succumb to the plague)??-12
There are actually three types of plague that contributed to the Black Death. They are:
• Bubonic Plague – swollen lymph nodes around the groin, armpit, and neck areas.
• Septicemic Plague – transmitted through the bloodstream by fleas or contact with other plague infected body fluids or solid body matter.
• Pneumonic Plague – transmitted through airborne droplets by coughing or sneezing.
Bubonic plague kills only half the people that get infected, but Septicemic and Pneumonic plague are more infectious and are always fatal. People usually refer to the plague as Black Death or Bubonic Plague. Black Death was coined because of the black swellings and eventual blackened skin from the hemorrhaging blood vessels. Bubonic Plague is usually the term that is spoken of, but it is Septicemic and Pneumonic Plagues that were responsible for the large amount of deaths. The plague continued to be a menace in later centuries. The Great Plague of London in the 17th century killed one fifth of the population. The plague still exists today but it is highly treatable with anti-biotics. Also, our 21st century has better sanitary conditions that would restrict its
I was observing the spread of the plague right before my eyes. I knew how the three types of plague were transmitted but the humans did not. The three types were the Bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic plague. The Bubonic plague was the most common plague in medieval Europe. It was transmitted by infected fleas that were carried by rats, when the rat died the flea would jump to a human to feed from their blood. The human bitten by the flea, was then infected and faced certain death, the flea would then find a new human to feed off. The Pneumonic plague, being the second most common type in medieval Europe, was far more deadly and contagious than the Bubonic plague. The Plague would attack a human's respiratory system and was spread through the air by a victim's cough. The last type of plague was the Septicemic, it was the rarest and deadliest form of the Black Death. The Septicemic plague was also spread by fleas, like the Bubonic plague, but moved directly to a human's
The most common one was the Bubonic Variant type of plague because it was inflected by fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans. Its symptoms were swellings or buboes that appeared on the victims neck, armpits or groin. People with this kind of plague live up to a week. One of the other types of plague is Pneumonic plague which wasn’t that common would but if you did get it you would die in a day or two because if it got to your bloodstream you would die. It spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim. The last type of plague is the Septicemic plague. The Septicemic plague would attack your bloodstream and you would bleed out. For the Septicemic plague there was no definite
The Black Death, also branded as the Bubonic plague, was Europe’s must terrifying time of the 15th century as it wiped out the majority of Europeans. The Black Death originated in Central Asia and made its way right around Europe. It was carried by flees that originated from Central Asia although they were not affected straight away as the population didn’t live in a close proximity to the flees (12;2015). Although we are able to identify where the plague came from, we are unable to identify the reasons as to why the plague came to being. There are two theories regarding the causes of the plague, one being the Malthusian Theory and the other one being the Marxist theory (12;2015).
Why was the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) so Devastating to European Society? The Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, was a huge epidemic in the mid-1300s. It killed off about 20 million Europeans within 1348 and 1351and was thought to originate from China and move westwards through means of infected fleas and rats through shipping and trade (Document 1).
The carriers of this disease were rats and fleas. It first started off with fleas, then fleas would then jump on rats and the rats would give the disease to humans. The disease didn 't harm the fleas and the rats could only take so much without showing ill effects. Rats would get on ships and make everyone on the ships sick. This is how the Plague traveled.
The great plague came in three different forms. The types of illness differed in symptoms, spread and sufferings. The bubonic plague was the diseases most common form. It was named this due to swelling called “buboes” of the victim’s lymph nodes. “These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple” (The Black Death). The longest expectancy with this form of illness didn’t often exceed one week. The second variation of plague was known as the “pneumatic
The Great Plague of 1665 in London killed eight thousand people a week at its peak. Surgeons lanced buboes in an ineffective attempt to rid the body of bad humors (The Great Plague). Yersinia pestis lives in fleas on many types of rodent species. The rodents serve as long-term reservoirs for the bacteria without the rodents experiencing excessive die-off. Dogs and cats can host fleas infected with Yerisina pestis (Ecology). This makes the plague a zoonotic disease. The way the bacterium was transmitted in London was by the bites of infected fleas. Other animals can become infected by fleas that traveled from another host. Epizootic infections are then transferred to humans according to the Center for Disease Control. In 1666 London had a fire and the city was cleaned and better sewer systems were built. These improvements reduced the number of rats and ended the
Beginning in the mid-fourteenth century, a plague swept the world like no other. It struck in a series of waves that continued into the eighteenth century. The first wave was estimated to have killed twenty-five million people, about a third of the Western Europe population at that time. Throughout the different outbreaks, the plague, also known as the Bubonic Plague or the Black Death, caused people to react in several ways. Some people believed the plague was a medical problem that can be treated, some found themselves concerned only with their own greed, still others believed there was nothing they could do and reacted in fear, and most people believed it was a form of divine
The Plague was a severe outbreak of bacterium Yersinia pestis in the 1300’s and the 1800’s. Killing 25 million people in the 14th century alone it became one of Europe's most grim times in history. The Plague caused people to flee their homes in fear of catching the Black Death. The outbreak began in Peking, China otherwise known as modern day Beijing, capital of China. The disease ended out around 1350, but still had no medically accurate way of treating the disease.
The causes of the Black Death – the flea, the rat, and the bacillus Yersinia pestis– have been labeled the “unholy trinity” (Boeckl). The flea is able to live in environmental conditions of about 74° Fahrenheit and 60% humidity (Ibid). Before the Black Death reached Europe, they were experiencing those same types of weather conditions. The rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis and the human flea, Pulex irritans, are both capable of transmitting plague (Boeckl). Sometimes, an infected flea cannot ingest blood because Yersinia pestis obstructs its digestive tract. The blockage causes a flea to regurgitate into a bitten host rather than ingest the host’s blood, thereby infecting the host with plague (Boeckl). Unable to eat, the famished flea will bite with more frequency, accelerating the spread of plague. A flea can be carrying Yersinia pestis without it blocking the flea’s digestive tract, in which case the flea does not transmit plague when it bites a host. Also, Yersinia pestis can only enter a victim through a bite, as the bacilli cannot pass through intact skin (Gottfried).
It spread from here to insects such as fleas and ticks which spread to what rats which many believe is the leading factor which brought upon the plague. The symptoms of the plague were many but most experienced a growth or boil somewhere upon there body, roughly the size of nut which gave the disease its name and was very painful to the inflicted. If procedures were taken to clean the boil quickly victims were said to have a better chance at survival. The second stage was that of black spots appearing on the skin and the final stage was the coughing of blood which usually was a clear cue that the person had days to live. The old rhyme "Ring around the Rosie" Is said to have come from the symptoms endured by the people during the plague but is not according to one of the readings historically correct. Many historians believe that rats are the reason the disease was able to spread so fast and far but that the disease began in the
The Yersinia Pestis bacterium, better know as the black plague, is known for taking millions upon millions of lives throughout human history. Poor living conditions and sanitation are favorable in the quick spread of the disease, which is why it spread like wildfire in the middle ages. In today's society, however, contracting the bacterium is almost unheard of. But even with all the medical advances we have today, a mortality rate of 30-75% still haunts over those infected.
The Bubonic Plague erupted in 1320 in the Gobi Desert in central Asia. This plague was passed through rodents to other animals and then to humans through flea bites. This plague has three different names, The Bubonic Plague, The Black Death, and Yersinia pestis. Y. Pestis was named after one of its co-founders, Alexandre Yersin. It’s called the Black death because your blood dries underneath of the skin and turns it black, you can also get skin sores that turn black.
According to an article in History Today, “The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague…” (Benedictow). The bubonic plague was referred to as the Black Death because the skin was blackened due to blood drying under the skin’s surface (Scogna). Bubonic
I. Introduction: A. Attention Getter: During the 14th century, the Bubonic Plague was one of the most catastrophic events that changed all of Europe and Asia as it wiped out millions of people. The Black Death affected the entire world and caused fear in people for several of years. B. Thesis: Starting with what the plague is, to the effects, and the treatments, the Plague was the most devastating pandemics in human history. II.