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Essay On Black Death

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The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the death of some 75 to 200 million people in Europe in the years 1346-53. There were several competing theories as to the etiology of the Black Death, analysis of DNA from victims in northern and southern Europe published in 2010-11 indicates that the pathogen responsible for the Yersinia pestis bacterium probably caused several forms of the plague. The Black Death is thought to have come from the arid plains of Central Asia, where it travelled along the Silk road, reaching the Cremea by 1343. From there it most likely was carried by rat fleas living on the black rats that were passengers on merchant ships. Spreading throughout the Mediterranean …show more content…

The most commonly noted symptom was the appearance of buboes in the groin, the neck and armpits, which oozed pus and bled when opened. From the parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous. It is said that the plague takes three forms. In the first people suffer an infection of the lungs, which leads to breathing difficulties. Whoever has this corruption or contamination to any extent cannot escape but will die within two days. Another form...in which boils erupt under the armpits, a third form in which people of both sexes are attacked in the groin. The modern bubonic plague has a mortality rate of 30–75% and symptoms including fever of 38–
41 °C (100–106 °F), headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise. Left untreated, of those that contract the bubonic plague, 80 percent die within eight days. The mechanism by which Y. pestis was usually transmitted was established in 1898

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