Bubonic Plague

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 Bubonic Plague, more commonly referred to as the "Black Death," ravaged Europe between the years 1347 and 1350. During this short period, 25 million people, one third of Europe's population at the time, were killed. Thousands of people died each week and dead bodies littered the streets. Once a family member had contracted the disease, the entire household was doomed to die. Parents abandoned their children, and parent-less children roamed the streets in search for food. Victims, delirious with pain, often lost their sanity. Life was in total chaos. The Plague was a disaster without a parallel, causing dramatic changes in medieval Europe. Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of

In the 14th century the Black Death engulfed Europe killing an estimated 50 million people. The pandemic is considered extraordinary because it did so in a matter of months. This disease was carried by fleas, the Bubonic Plague is caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis, found mainly in rodents, in this case in rats, and the fleas that feed on them.

The roots of this fearsome plague are very chilling to think about knowing that a mere flea can be the cause of the bubonic plagues epidemic. The more specific medical or scientific term for this disease is Yersinia Pestis. This was named after the doctor, Alexandre Yersin, who isolated the bacteria in 1894 during the pandemic that began in China in the 1860’s. The earliest traces of Y Pestis can be found all the way back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320’s. The cause of the sudden eruption is yet to be solved but the earliest major toll it has taken in our history books is in China in the 1330’s during the expansion of trade in the middle and high

The bubonic plague, also known as Black Death, is a prime example of the diseases transported throughout the Silk Roads. It is believed that this disease originally started in south China and was spread to northern China via Mongol warriors and Chinese travelers, eventually spreading westward along the Silk Roads and trade lanes to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The bubonic plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium and is spread by flea bites. Usually, fleas prefer to live on rats, but the large decrease in rat population due to the Little Ice Age caused the fleas to seek new hosts. The disease was previously localized to Mongolia and central Asia because of the nomadic lifestyle, but they could survive in sacks of grain and clothing and with the increase of trade along the Silk Roads, the fleas quickly made their way across the Mediterranean. Europeans were not prepared for this type of catastrophe and consequently suspended their daily lives. Many people abandoned their houses, churches and schools closed, and the sick were quarantined inside their homes while bodies of the deceased were piled in the streets and buried in mass graves. In some cases, the infected were burned along with their belongings in an effort to destroy the disease. By the end of the initial outbreak, almost 40% of Europe's population had died and trade had been brought to a halt. The Black Death had profoundly changed the political, social, economic, religious, and cultural foundations of modern Europe (Acrobatiq,

Throughout this awful time, many people died. When someone got the illness, it didn't take long for that person to die, it actually took only a few days. This plague caused swollen lymph nodes, fever, exhaustion, and infection in blood and lungs. People and doctors tried to make treatments to stop the sickness, nothing was affetive, though. For example, something that they did

“Medieval physicians wore outfits made of cloth or leather to protect themselves from the plague.”(Document 5). The smell was so awful they had to wear beak like masks filled with spices, and they had to soak their cloth with vinegar to try to mask the stench.

In document 2 it states, “To cure these infirmities neither the advice of the physicians nor the power of medicine appeared to have any value or profit; perhaps either the nature of the disease did not allow for any cure or the ignorance of the physicians . . . did not know how to cure it; as a consequence, very few were ever cured; all died three days after the appearance of the first outward signs, some lasted a little bit longer, some died a little bit more quickly, and some without fever or other symptoms.” This shows that many people died quickly because the physicians did not understand how to deal with the rapid spreading of this disease and how to treat it. Also, document 6 states “Medieval physicians wore outfits made of cloth or leather to protect themselves from the plague. The bird-like beak contained spices and vinegar-soaked cloth to mask the stench of death and decay.” This indicates the common belief back then that the smell of the dead bodies was spreading the disease. This also demonstrates the ignorance physicians had about germs which was a big part of why the plague affected so many people in such a short amount of

No one could have predicted nor outsmarted the sickness. The plague, believed to have been brought to Europe on ships from Asia, was a mystery to all. Had there been a higher standard of hygiene, the Black Death may not have affected Europe in such an unstoppable way. In Document 4, Marchionne di Coppo Stefani details the disposal of the dead into deep trenches after doctors failed to treat patients. Stefani explains that physicians would “[check] the pulse with face turned

The Bubonic Plague or the Black Death has been in the history books since the medieval times. This deadly disease has claimed nearly 1.5 million lives in Europe (Gottfried). The Black Death hit Europe in October of 1347 and quickly spread through most of Europe by the end of 1349 and continued on to Scandinavia and Russia in the 1350s. Not only did the plague effect the European population by killing one-third to two-thirds (Gottfried), it also hurt the social and economic structures of every European society.

The first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague was in AD 542-543(Kathleen). The Plague has been recorded to even destroy half of the roman emperor. This is only one example of how the bubonic plague has affected the course of history. The Plague is a disease that turned epidemic and killed multiple people in the past and still kills a large number of people. After the scientists figured out causes of the plague and ascertain what it was like to have the Plague, there was a better tolerance of the influence it had on the world.

Scientifically confirmed in the late 19th century, Yersinina pestis, a bacterium found in rats and their parasitic fleas, traveled from Asian ships along trade routes to Europe. Westward, an outbreak first appeared in Constantinople in 1346, reached Sicily by 1347, then the Italian ports of Venice Genoa, and Pisa a year later in 1348; it thereafter swept through Spain, southern France, and northern Europe rapidly with death at the doorstep, and sporadically reappeared in the following decades. Originally theorized to only spread as an infected flea bit its victim, such an inefficient technique of transmission contradicted the disease’s sudden spread, eventually propelling an additional, airborne culprit. As the bubonic plague infiltrated a host’s lungs, it induced sneezing and coughing that extensively circulated through an area and increased disease exposure. Infected, yet seemingly healthy citizens also moved to clean towns, the vast majority of the living existed under unsanitary conditions, and misinformed physicians practiced either adiaphorous or detrimental treatments, heightening the magnitude of fatalities. In short, although the bubonic plague historically entered through flea-bearing rats that inhabited Asian trading ships on their way to Europe, and aggressively viraled through the air once docked, the naive fourteenth century society reveled in uncovering alternative “causes” for the plague, and distinctly responded to

There are three main types of existing plagues: Bubonic plague, Septicemic plague, and Pneumonic plague. All three are caused by the bacterium named Yersinia pestis that is found in infected rodents and their fleas (CDC, Plague home page paragraph 1). The oriental rat flea, or Xenopsylla cheopis, is the primary vector, but handling infected animals can also spread plague. Yersinia pestis is a gram-negative bacterial

Transmitted naturally zoonotic diseases have been around for many years. Dating back to biblical times as well as Ancient Greece, zoonotic diseases were referred to as plagues. One in particular, in fact the most noted plague, to cross mankind was from 1348 through 1350 called the black plague. The Black plague is a bacterial infection named Yersinia pestis. The ancient zoonotic disease was said to be transmitted by an oriental rat fleas carried by black rats who were in direct contact with humans. These infected rats traveled with humans on ships during trade. In 1348 medication used to treat the black plague were remedies like the vinegar and water treatment. The vinegar and water treatment directed that the infected person be put to bed and bathed with vinegar and rose water. Other remedies and medications ordered the infected person to drink a mixture every morning and every night. This mixture included roasting the shells of newly laid eggs. Then ground the roasted shells into a powder. Chop up the leaves and petals of marigold flowers. Put the egg shells and marigolds into a pot of good ale. Add treacle and warm over a fire. The patient should drink this mixture every morning and night. Now antibiotics such as streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline, or ciprofloxacin are used to treat this disease. Also Oxygen, intravenous fluids, and respiratory support are

In a desperate attempt to survive the Plague, people are coming up with numerous Plague ‘cures’. Strapping live chickens around Plague infected areas or drinking medicines mixed with mercury or arsenic in attempts to save themselves. Very few doctors are agreeing with