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The Black Death Hit The Shores Of Europe

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The Black Death hit the shores of Europe in October 1347. After a long a tough journey, through the Black Sea, twelve ships or Genoese docked at the Sicilian Port. Those who greeted the ships had a horrifying site of dead sailors and the sailors who were alive were greatly ill. It is said that the sailors had awful fevers, were not able to keep food down, and they were covered in black boils that oozed blood and puss. This is where the name Black Death came from. Although the ships were ordered to leave the port, the Black Death claimed the lives of over 20 million people, about one third of the continent’s population during that time, over the next five year.1 In October 1347, twelve ships arrived at the port of Messina in Sicily. This town was one of the stopping points of the trade route from the East that brought silks and spices through the Old Silk Road, then through Crimea, across the Black Sea and into Europe. However, this time there were no silks and spices. The port authorities found scarcely anyone on board. Those who were found on board, had black boils and everything that came out of their body smelled awful. The very presence of the sailors was said to “deem public health” and were ordered to leave the port.2 The Black Death has been thought to be a mixture of bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plague. A plague is a disease that are carried by rodents and is endemic to a number of regions of the world. The plague bacillus lives in the bloodstream of small

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