Bubonic Plague Research Paper

The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, was a fatal disease that affected millions of people. Originated from China, the Bubonic Plague spread throughout Europe and made its way to Italy in 1347. (document 1) The Black Death, which covered the body with dark and livid spots, was difficult to treat. No one knew how to treat the disease nor how it began to spread.

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

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

The general health and wellbeing of the Middle Ages was very poor, mostly as a result of the Black Death. The Black Death, also commonly known as the Black Plague or the Plague, was a widespread disease that killed an estimated 17 to 30 million people between the years of 1346 through 1353. It is widely thought to have originated in Central Asia and eventually made its way to Europe. The symptoms of the Plague appeared in the first few days of infection. At first it starts with flu-like symptoms, such as headache, a fever, chills, nausea, and vomiting. Also, the victim may experience back pain,muscle soreness, and sensitivity to light. After the second or third day, buboes appear. Buboes are swollen lymph nodes which look similar to a large

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 Bubonic Plague came to Europe in 1347. It was brought on ships with goods from Asia. The disease followed on trade routes as it swept through Europe. The manure and trash in Europe helped the disease spread and hard to get away from since the disease was carried by rats. The plague began with swellings as big as apples. The swellings spread as the body started to be covered in dark spots and sickness set in (document

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

The first major European outbreak of the plague occurred 1347 in Italy. The plague is a bacterium carried by fleas. It likely originated in Asia, but shipboard rats carried diseased fleas to Europe where the densely populated and unsanitary conditions made it catastrophic. The most common bubonic plague results in dark colored buboes (swollen lymph glands in the armpits and groin). These black or dark spots led to the name Black Death because most people who had the swollen dark spots died. The medicine available to people during this time was of no affect. In fact in his popular book, In The Wake of The

The cause of the Bubonic Plague was by a living host that transport from one animal to another animal, which is called a vector-borne illness. A Xenopsylla Cheopis, an oriental rat flea, was the vector. When the flea bites, the wound is injected by infected blood and the body’s natural response to inflammatory decreases. The bacteria travels using white blood cells to find the closes lymph node, then spreads and multiplies. Lymph nodes are important because they carry fluids, waste material and nutrients to body tissues and the bloodstream. If they swell up, they can’t filter out the bad bacteria in the body. In the first few days of catching the plague, a person experiences large swelling in the lymph nodes which causes the body immune to

When Bubonic Plague visited England in 1348, it was called the Great Mortality. We know it as the Black Death that lasted until 1352 and killed vast populations in Asia , North Africa , Europe , Iceland , and Greenland . In total, it extinguished as much as fifty percent of the world's population.

2. The main symptoms of the Bubonic Plague was headaches, chills, high temperature, tiredness, nausea, pain, then it affects the neck and sides of the neck. These swelled up into large bumps called the "buboes".

Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is spread by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. These bacteria remain in a dormant state primarily in a rat flea’s foregut. Once the flea has bitten a victim it regurgitates the contents in its foregut into the bite location. Once the bacterium has entered into a mammal’s warm body it begins to reproduce and spread throughout the mammal’s body. The reproduction of this bacterium creates large painful swollen lymph nodes which are called buboes. Once these buboes get large enough they begin to ooze infected body fluid so that any contact between an infected person and a healthy person will facilitate the spread of this disease. (The Mayo Clinic Staff, 2012)

The Great Plague of Europe made its way all throughout the continent and its population. The plague started on the western side of Europe; off the coast of Italy. It arrived by sea between the fall of 1347 and through early spring 1348. Italy was affected so hard that only one out of seven victims would recover in those parts. The

There are three types of plague disease and each one of them has different symptoms. The first type of plague disease, the most popular type of disease, called Bubonic plague. According to Patient Care & Health Information in Mayo Clinic, its symptoms start to appear with less than 10 days after someone got bitten by an infected flea. The symptoms start with buboes, swollen lymph nodes, appear in some places in the body like neck, groin, or armpit. Also, buboes’ size is almost like a chicken egg size. A headache, muscle ache, chills and fever are the other sings of this type of disease (2015). The other type of plague disease is a result of plague bacteria multiplies in the blood which known as Septicemic plague. According to CDC, shock,

Bacteria called Yersinia pestis caused the Bubonic plague. It was the cause for some of the wicked symptoms that normally showed within one to seven days. Some of the symptoms were general illness such as vomiting, fevers around 101-105 degrees, headaches and the enlargement of the lymph nodes in the areas