The Bubonic Plague: The Black Death

Imagine a time where millions of people died because of a plague that could not be explained. That was the case for many during the Middle Ages throughout cities in Europe. Around the time of 1347, a horrible plague took the lives of millions of people infamously known as The Black Death. People still wonder how did it all begin? And who did it affect? Really, there are many questions that one asks about the Black Death including how it all began, who it affected, symptoms, and how it ended. While many of these questions are answered through research, it is still amazing how this plague was capable of occurring. Ashes! We all fall down, is a well-known phrase that comes from a nursery rhyme named “Ring around the Rosie” that describes how the …show more content…
“The word plague derives from an ancient Greek medical term plêgê meaning "stroke"—it's a reference to the speed with which the disease brings down its victims—and this plague was a real death-blow to medieval Europe.” This plague came on its victims so powerfully and quickly that they seemed to have been struck by this horrible unseen force. But where does the plague come from? This is generally a question many ask because it became so powerful and strong. “All in all, the bubonic plague is fundamentally a rat disease since it does not persist long in human communities where rats are absent. Rats, however, are not the cause of Plague—its pathogen—rather, just like human hosts, they are victims of the disease.” Originally, some may think that this plague comes from an animal and is then transmitted to people, but this is not the case. “The actual pathogen is a bacillus (a form of bacteria; pl. bacilli) called Yersinia pestis, which was first isolated and identified in 1894 by the French bacteriologist, Alexandre Yersin, after whom it is named.” The plague comes from a form of bacteria which lives in bloodstream of rats. It then moves from the rat bloodstream to rat fleas and that is how it is carried to its