Throughout history, there are many people who tried to understand what caused the rapid spread of the Black Plague. It 1348, the Black Plague hit Western Europe and spread too many other places because people tried to escape the towns that were infected; these people brought the diseases with them. As people fled from town to town, the transmission of this disease spread from person to person. For three days, the young, the old, the poor and the rich were suffering. No one was safe. Just like in today’s society, when a disease spreads, chaos erupts because people do not know what is happening. Medieval people came up with their own logic on why this was happening, which was not very accurate. As time passed on, scientists tried to understand
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The scholarly article “The Plague of Plagues” explains how they believe there were more than one type of disease spreading during this time. They do not believe the Black Plague was the only thing killing people because there were too many deaths. Scientist decided to look at different types of bacterial agents to see if they could possibly identify what could be the cause of the transmission of this deadly disease. The article talks about five categories scientist use to decide whether or not that certain bacterial agent could be the cause. The five groups include: “timing – speed with which the epidemic spread; mortality rate – the percentage of the population that died during the epidemic, in toto and by gender; seasonality – the months of the year that exhibited the highest mortality; the agents of infection – the manner in which the disease spread; and symptoms” (Theilmann and Cate p. 372). For each type of bacterial agent they had, the scientist explain why this type could be a possible cause of the Black Plague, but at the same time how a certain aspects of it made it not possible. In the end, they believe the Yersinia pestis is the most likely cause of the Black plague, even though they still believe other factors played a role in the all the deaths. Unlike other bacterial agents, the Yersinia pestis has multiple strains so it can adapt quickly and some host rats did not die after being infected, which allowed the disease to continue on to the spring time (Theilmann and Cate p. 388). This was not a trait other bacterial agents had, which is why scientist point to this strain as the most likely
The scholarly article “The Plague of Plagues” explains how they believe there were more than one type of disease spreading during this time. They do not believe the Black Plague was the only thing killing people because there were too many deaths. Scientist decided to look at different types of bacterial agents to see if they could possibly identify what could be the cause of the transmission of this deadly disease. The article talks about five categories scientist use to decide whether or not that certain bacterial agent could be the cause. The five groups include: “timing – speed with which the epidemic spread; mortality rate – the percentage of the population that died during the epidemic, in toto and by gender; seasonality – the months of the year that exhibited the highest mortality; the agents of infection – the manner in which the disease spread; and symptoms” (Theilmann and Cate p. 372). For each type of bacterial agent they had, the scientist explain why this type could be a possible cause of the Black Plague, but at the same time how a certain aspects of it made it not possible. In the end, they believe the Yersinia pestis is the most likely cause of the Black plague, even though they still believe other factors played a role in the all the deaths. Unlike other bacterial agents, the Yersinia pestis has multiple strains so it can adapt quickly and some host rats did not die after being infected, which allowed the disease to continue on to the spring time (Theilmann and Cate p. 388). This was not a trait other bacterial agents had, which is why scientist point to this strain as the most likely