The plague was a catastrophic time in history, and happened more than once. It took millions and millions of people’s lives. It destroyed cities and countries, and many people suffered from it. What is the plague? The plague or referred to as the Black Death, according to the CDC (2015), “is a disease that affects humans and other mammals and caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Humans usually get plague after being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium or by handling an animal infected with plague”. There are three categories of a plague. There is the bubonic plague, which is the most common form. With this form bacteria infects the lymph system and causes it to become inflamed. Symptoms of this type of plague are fever, headache, chills, and swollen and tender lymph nodes, which are called buboes. Then there is the Septicemic, which occurs when the bacteria multiply in the blood. Symptoms of this type of plague are fever, chills, extreme weakness, abdominal pain, shock, and possibly bleeding into the skin and other organs. Also, skin and other tissues may turn black and die, especially fingers, toes and the nose (CDC, 2015). Then there is the Pneumonic Plague, which is the most serious form of plague and occurs when Y. pestis bacteria infect the lungs and cause pneumonia (NIH, 2015). This is the only form of the plague that can be transmitted human to human. Symptoms of this form of the plague are ever, headache, weakness, and a rapidly
Now, what was the plague? It wasn’t just one disease, it was a combination of three bacterial strains: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. If you got it, the least dangerous was the bubonic. You would get a high fever, chills, buboes, rapid heartbeat and vomiting, within 3 to 6 days of having this, up to 50-80% of the victims died. Pneumonic, which was less common, infected the respiratory system and killed almost all its victims taking only hours to do so. Last, was septicemic, this type infected the bloodstream, which ended up killing all who got it. But, either way, whichever form you got you would still end up dying. And although this happened in the 14th century, this was not the first time the plague had gone around. It went to Europe in the 18th century and into Africa and Asia the 20th century.
In fourteenth century Europe, the main object of the people's’ fears was the Bubonic Plague, more commonly know as the Black Death. They were nothing less than ecstatic when the giant outbreak of the disease had diminished, but it could not be put out completely. In 2015, nearly 15 cases were reported of the Bubonic Plague. The most recent being reported on September 14, 2015, in Marquette County, Michigan. Residents described fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes in the armpits, neck, and groin.
Plague is an infectious disease that affects rodents, other animals and humans caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria. Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of the Plague. It is a virulent pathogen causes painful, severe illness as well as death. “Yersinia pestis is a Gram-negative, bipolar-staining coccobacillus member of the Enterobacteriaceae family, and is an obligate intracellular pathogen that must be contained
The plague is a dangerous and deadly disease. The plague is one of the oldest diseases known to the human race. Back when Europe was still in the middle ages all the people including serfs, royalty, jews, and church members were devastated by disease that was unknown to them. The disease spread rapidly through Europe through a variety of means. The plague possesses many names like the black death or the black plague. No matter what the people referred to it as it greatly affected the society in Europe including art, the economy, politics, culture, and religion. The plague is also continuously affecting the planet Earth’s population today.
In the 14th century, a devastating plague known as the Black Death was responsible for the death of more than one-third of Europe’s population. The first recorded epidemic of the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague was in Europe during the 6th Century. The disease truly became pandemic in 1328, the medieval period of the history of the world. Bubonic plague is one of three types of bacterial infection caused by Yersinia pestis which can be transmitted by rodents or from the bite of a flea. Most interesting about the bubonic plague is that there have been several epidemics, although the one that killed one-third of Europe’s population is the most relevant and memorable. Because of the impact the bubonic plague had on the English society, they
The Black Death was the great epidemic of a disease thought to be bubonic plague, which killed a large proportion of the population of Europe in the mid 14th century (the Medieval period). It originated in central Asia and China and spread rapidly through Europe, carried by the fleas of black rats, reaching England in 1348 and killing between one third and one half of the population in a matter of months. No amount of medical knowledge could help England when the plague struck. It was also to have a major impact on England’s social structure, which lead to the Peasants Revolt of 1381. Some main consequences of the Black Death are the economical and social side of things and the political effects of this event.
The Bubonic Plague, also referred to as the Black Death was a catastrophe that took place in about 7 different countries starting in around 1346. The Bubonic Plague effected not only the health of the people around the region, but the culture (arts and beliefs) of the time as well. In approximately four years, it destroyed a third of Europe’s population and nothing was quite the same in Europe after that.
The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is considered one of the most lethal in history. Recorded pandemics of the plague reach back to 541 A.D. and minor epidemics can still be found around the world (Plague). The plague consists of a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. This bacterium has the ability to mutate quickly and can easily destroy the immune system of the infected person, “it does this by injecting toxins into defense cells such as macrophages that are tasked with detecting bacterial infections. Once these cells are knocked out, the bacteria can multiply unhindered.” (Plague) The bubonic plague has a number of symptoms ranging from a headache to seizures. The most distinguishable
The plague was caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis. Black rats carrying the disease lived everywhere; on boats, in the streets, in shops, and even in people’s houses! Fleas living in the rat’s fur bit the rat,and contracted the disease. The fleas then bit the humans, which spread the bacteria to them. Humans spread it to each other, through normal contact, it spread like the common cold. Because the rats lived in boats, they climbed out
Plague, was a term that was applied in the Middle Ages to all fatal epidemic diseases, but now it is only applied to an acute, infectious, contagious disease of rodents and humans, caused by a short, thin, gram-negative bacillus. In humans, plague occurs in three forms: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. The best known form is the bubonic plague and it is named after buboes, or enlarged, inflamed lymph nodes, which are characteristics of the plague in the groin or neck or armpit. Bubonic plague can only be transmitted by the bite of any of numerous insects that are normally parasitic on rodents and that seek new hosts when the original host dies. If the plague is left untreated
The plague was caused by a bacterial infection carried by the fleas of rodents. When the fleas come into contact with humans the outcome can be devastating and horrifying. The Bubonic plague, also known as The Black Death, is one of the most well-known plagues in history. Between 1347 and 1353, Europe experienced a merciless outbreak of the plague and in just a few years, one third of the world’s population was struck down by the Black Death. Whether it is the many different symptoms, bizarre methods of treatment, or life after the plague, The Black Death, in all its morbid glory, is fascinating.
Due to the sparse amount of medical knowledge on the Bubonic plague, the plague easily reaped many European lives. The people at the time had “no defense against the disease and no understanding of how it spread”, allowing the plague to cause enormous panic and death. Once infected with the plague, the expected life expectancy was 1-2 days. “Another even more virulent form attacked the respiratory system and was spread by breathing the exhaled air of a victim”, the plague was even exchanged through breathing, showing how overwhelmingly easy it was for the plague to spread and infect. “No human wisdom or foresight seemed to have any value” in stopping the devastating plague, not even the advice of their physicians, or their medicine at the time
Bubonic plague has had a major impact on the history of the world. Caused by the bacterium, Yersinia pestis, and transmitted by fleas often found on rats, bubonic plague has killed over 50 million people over the centuries. Burrowing rodent populations across the world keep the disease present in the world today. Outbreaks, though often small, still occur in many places. The use of antibiotics and increased scientific knowledge first gained in the 1890s have reduced the destruction of plague outbreaks. In Medieval times, with the unknowing help of humans, bubonic plague exploded into a pandemic. Known as the ³Black Death², it decimated Europe in 1350, killing 1/3 of the
The Bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, was a severe outbreak of disease that spread in Europe in the 14th century from 1346-1353. The disease spread faster then originally expected of killing only twenty or thirty percent but killed "60 percent of Europe 's population" ( Benedictow). It is believed the population of Europe was around eighty million and that would add up to be fifty million deaths. It was a horrific death for one to experience and can still be found in the world today. The Black Death was a tragic disease that spread through Europe vigorously killing fifty million people and changed European history.
Many people had different ideas on what caused the Plague. Some of the reasons included that God was correcting issues such as human wrongdoings, Jews were poisoning the Christians by putting poison in the water sources, and that an earthquake caused fumes to get into the air that people were then breathing in and becoming ill from (Marks, Geoffrey J). In reality, the plague was caused by Yersinia Pestis, which is a bacteria carried by rodents. If a rat carrying the bacteria were to bite a human, then the bacteria would enter the human’s bloodstream and would spread rapidly. The individuals that were affected had large swollen lymph nodes, high fever, and became delirious from pain (The Black Death). The most distinguishing side effect was patches on the