The Plague Of The Black Plague

(MIP-1) The black plague swept through the medieval times causing utter chaos and fear. (SIP-A) The thing everyone had on their minds when the plague hit was death, but what truly was the plague that took everyone by storm ? The plague was a disease that was extremely contagious that spread from person to person as quick as wildfire. (STEWE-1) In Europe of 1347 millions of people were in shock by the visit of the black plague (Konstam 118). The black plague all started when it first rose in the early 1300’s in Central Asia. It arrived in Europe when trading ships from Central Asia with people infected with the plague came aboard (“The Black Death").The black plague also called the the black death was spread by a disease causing bacterium named Yersina Pestis

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

In the year 1348 the world changed forever. The Black Death, which is another name for the Bubonic Plague, laid havoc on the entire world. “The plague chases the screaming without pity and does not accept a treasure for a ransom. Its engine is far-reaching. The plague enters into the house and swears it will not leave except with all of its inhabitants…” (Al-Wardi, #29, 113). The plague did not care if the people were rich, poor, white, black, Muslim or Catholic, it would kill whomever it could. The plague brought out the worst in people because people acted selfishly, people were completely inhumane, and there was no peace.

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 plague, otherwise known as “the Black Death”, brought on much turmoil and suffering for the habitants of Pistoia. Numerous ordinances were put into effect with the primary goal of limiting the spread of the plague as well as to keep the city as healthy as possible. These ordinances typically focused on confinement, i.e. no one goes to Pisa and Luca and no one from Pisa and Luca is allowed to enter Pistoia (ordinance 1), how death and burials are to be processed (ordinances 3-12), and how butchers were to handle their animals and animal carcasses (ordinances 13-19). Essentially, confinement was targeted in hopes of stopping the spread of the infection while keeping the city isolated. Secondly, how the bodies of plague victims and their

From 1347 to 1352 a string of the bubonic plague lay waste to western Europe, killing millions. In Italy, nearly a third of the population died; in England, half. The plague was a looming presence, always in the back of people’s minds. The symptoms of the Black Death caused great strife for westerners. Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer and poet, described the symptoms he saw during the first outbreak of the plague: “Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men a women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumors in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli.” Both Italy and England desperately searched for answers, claiming that the Black Death was the cause of a higher force, but realising that the squalor of their countries also played a part in spreading the illness. Although Italy and England both had a common explanation for the cause of the plague and they both implemented better public health standards, they adopted different public health practices after the plague.

The Black Death, the most severe epidemic in human history, ravaged Europe from 1347-1351. This plague killed entire families at a time and destroyed at least 1,000 villages. Greatly contributing to the Crisis of the Fourteenth Century, the Black Death had many effects beyond its immediate symptoms. Not only did the Black Death take a devastating toll on human life, but it also played a major role in shaping European life in the years following.

The most common one was the Bubonic Variant type of plague because it was inflected by fleas that attached themselves to rats and then to humans. Its symptoms were swellings or buboes that appeared on the victims neck, armpits or groin. People with this kind of plague live up to a week. One of the other types of plague is Pneumonic plague which wasn’t that common would but if you did get it you would die in a day or two because if it got to your bloodstream you would die. It spread by merely breathing the exhaled air of a victim. The last type of plague is the Septicemic plague. The Septicemic plague would attack your bloodstream and you would bleed out. For the Septicemic plague there was no definite

Almost all who contracted either the pneumonic or septicemic plague died from the infection (Boeckl).

From the reading “The Black Death”, the descriptions that stood out the most were the effects that the plague had on the animals. As described by the author, the plague effected both humans and animals. In paragraph seven, this point was emphasized in very grave details. The author stated that “One day, for instance, the rags of a pauper who had died from the disease were thrown into the street, where they attracted the attention of two pigs. In their wonted fashion, the pigs first of all gave the rags a thorough mauling with their snouts, after which they took them between their teeth and shook them against their cheeks. And within a short time they began to writhe as though they had been poisoned, then they both dropped dead to the ground”

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.

A plague is a bacterial infection that can take on more than one form. One of the greatest plagues that have stricken mankind throughout history was the Black Death. The Black Death was the outbreak of the bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area between 1347 and 1351. This plague was the most severe plague that hit the earth because of its origin (the spread), the symptoms, and the effects of the plague.

The Black Death, which swept the continent of Europe in the mid-1300’s, was an extreme epidemic which was an eye-opener for extreme illnesses and plagues. The plague had a lot of harmful effects on the people and continent of Europe. The Black Death was a powerful, murderous, and rampant disease.

The word plague means a dangerous disease that quickly spreads and causes death. Alexander Yersin identified the cause of the bubonic plague. He discovered that the disease was being caused by a deadly bacterium which he named after himself, Yersinia pestis. Yersin worked with a scientist named Pasteur in France to develop a treatment to fight the plague. Yersin was the first to suggest that rats and fleas were the main cause for the spreading of the plague. Symptoms of the plague emerge after one to seven days which include fever, swelling in the regional lymph nodes in the groin, armpit, or neck. In most cases the bacterium spread to the bloodstream and central nervous system resulting in death 100 percent of the time. There are actually three types of plague; the most common was the bubonic plague. “The disease in humans has three clinical forms: bubonic pneumonic and septicemia. The Bubonic plague is the best known form in popular lore, and indeed it constitutes about three-fourths of plague cases” (Encyclopedia Britannica 3). The bubonic plague is the blame for causing the Black Death of the fourteenth century. The symptoms of the bubonic plague strike rapidly within two to five days of being bitten by a flea or rat. The first stage of symptoms includes; fever, chills, severe headache, sore throat, and muscle aches. The second stage of symptoms include; vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, and respiratory failure. The bacterium travel to the immune system and began to break it

The great plague came in three different forms. The types of illness differed in symptoms, spread and sufferings. The bubonic plague was the diseases most common form. It was named this due to swelling called “buboes” of the victim’s lymph nodes. “These tumors could range in size from that of an egg to that of an apple” (The Black Death). The longest expectancy with this form of illness didn’t often exceed one week. The second variation of plague was known as the “pneumatic