Yersinia Pestis: Origin And Routes Of Dissemination

Origin and Routes of Dissemination Towards the end of the 1330s, a coccobacillus called Yersinia Pestis, which slumbered for centuries in the blood of rats underwent a deadly exodus. The rats were immune to the bacteria in their bloodstream, but not the fleas that fed on their blood. A toxin produced by Yersinia Pestis blocked the abdomen of the flea thus inhibiting it from swallowing the blood it sucked out of the rat. Then, when a flea bit a human, it would deposit the blood from the rat infected with the bacteria into the human’s blood stream. The first victim or patient zero of the plague was thus infected. In 1347, the fast-expanding Mongolian empire sought the acquisition of the strategic town of Caffa, which was a …show more content…
After both battle and plague ensued, those who could afford a sea voyage boarded ships out of the plagued town towards the city of Messina in Sicily(Italy); which was a major port hub that connected major European, Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern cities. Furthermore, the ships transported grain infested with black rats. Even though not all the rats survived, fleas were present in abundance that could easily infect humans. The black death did not reach Europe solely from Caffa but, it is firmly believed that the Crimea played a pivotal role in the dissemination of the plague to Europe. By 1348, the black death had reached Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands and the Mediterranean carried in trade ships aboard the back of …show more content…
They relied on ancient sources like Aristotle and Hippocrates together with the most erudite people in medicine and astrology at the time. The faculty’s dissertation discussed the plague’s causes and implications in the first part of the treatise while discussing the alleged prevention and cure on the second part. Amongst other things, they suggested that the alignment of the three higher planets caused the corruption of the air and drew up evil vapors from the earth leading to the