Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, usually carried by rodents and other small animals. It is a vector borne disease in humans, which means it is caused by bites from a flea that is infected with the disease, direct contact, inhalation, or ingestion of infected materials. There are three types of plague depending on the route of infection: bubonic, septicaemic, and pneumonic. There have been three major epidemics of plague throughout history.
There have been three plague pandemics in the world that have been recorded. They were in 541, 1347, and 1894 CE and each time causing devastating mortality of people and animals. The first great pandemic of any plague was the outbreak of bubonic plague, the Justinian …show more content…
Known as pestilence at the time, it began with knowledge that European seaports had an epidemic in the East. In 1347, the plague was brought to the Crimea from Asia by the Tartar armies who had attacked the kingdom of Kaffam, which is now Ethiopia. This siege of the Tartars was unsuccessful and, in revenge, they catapulted corpses of people who had died from the plague over the walls into the city before leaving. In panic, the traders fled to Constantinople and across the Mediterranean to Europe, where the great pandemic of Europe started. By 1348, it had already spread to most of Europe and in cities, such as Florence, over half the cities population died. People died so quickly that proper burial and cremation couldn’t happen and corpses were thrown into large pits in the streets. In the three years from 1347 to 1350, the plague killed over 25 million people in Europe, a quarter of the population in …show more content…
By 1900, the plague had reached ports on every continent, carried by infected rats that travelled the international trade routes on steamships. It was during this outbreak that Alexander Yersin discovered the bacteria that caused the plague and Paul-Louis Simond discovered that rats were the primary hosts and that the rat flea was the vector of the disease. The third pandemic has emerged and re-emerged throughout the world for the next five decades and finally ended in 1959. In that time, the plague had caused over 15 million deaths, the majority of which were in India. The plague is still around in every continent and even though rare, there are still cases throughout the United States, but these cases are usually caught due to the early signs of the
There have been three plague pandemics in the world that have been recorded. They were in 541, 1347, and 1894 CE and each time causing devastating mortality of people and animals. The first great pandemic of any plague was the outbreak of bubonic plague, the Justinian …show more content…
Known as pestilence at the time, it began with knowledge that European seaports had an epidemic in the East. In 1347, the plague was brought to the Crimea from Asia by the Tartar armies who had attacked the kingdom of Kaffam, which is now Ethiopia. This siege of the Tartars was unsuccessful and, in revenge, they catapulted corpses of people who had died from the plague over the walls into the city before leaving. In panic, the traders fled to Constantinople and across the Mediterranean to Europe, where the great pandemic of Europe started. By 1348, it had already spread to most of Europe and in cities, such as Florence, over half the cities population died. People died so quickly that proper burial and cremation couldn’t happen and corpses were thrown into large pits in the streets. In the three years from 1347 to 1350, the plague killed over 25 million people in Europe, a quarter of the population in …show more content…
By 1900, the plague had reached ports on every continent, carried by infected rats that travelled the international trade routes on steamships. It was during this outbreak that Alexander Yersin discovered the bacteria that caused the plague and Paul-Louis Simond discovered that rats were the primary hosts and that the rat flea was the vector of the disease. The third pandemic has emerged and re-emerged throughout the world for the next five decades and finally ended in 1959. In that time, the plague had caused over 15 million deaths, the majority of which were in India. The plague is still around in every continent and even though rare, there are still cases throughout the United States, but these cases are usually caught due to the early signs of the