-The bacterial disease that atrophied Europe between 1347-1351, taking an equitably greater amount of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that point. The Black Death is broadly thought to have been the result of infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
5 Facts:
• Many doctors believed that bad smells could force out the plague. Therefore, treatments for the disease included applying feces and urine, and other substances that were much more likely to spread disease than to cure it.
• Y. Pestis utilized the flea by blocking its digestive tract. The flea tries constantly to feed, but the blockage causes it to vomit bacilli into its host. When the host perishes, the flea and its offspring pursue a fresh host, infesting …show more content…
pestis causes three varieties of plague: bubonic plague, caused by bites from infected fleas, in which the bacteria moves to lymph nodes and quickly multiplies, forming growths, or buboes; pneumonic plague, a lung infection that causes its victim to cough blood and spread the bacteria from person to person; and septic emic plague, a blood infection that is almost always fatal.
• Nearly no one thought the omnipresent rodents and fleas could be responsible.
• The efforts to find treatments for the pestilence started the momentum toward development of the scientific method and the changes in thinking that led to the Renaissance
• Plague continues to survive in the modern world, with Y. pestis foci in Asia, Russia, the American Southwest.(“41 Interesting Facts”.)
The Black Death or Bubonic Plague completely devastated millions of human lives during the two horrendous years it was prevalent in England. Roughly 50% of England’s population was eradicated due to the septicity. This great upsurge in bereavements brought many changes through the period 1348 to 1350. Aside from the social and economic calamity that was brought about by the plague, the biological aspects are equally frightening. ("41 Interesting Facts...") …show more content…
Further, some may believe the plague is not gone, per se, but only exists in filthy, third world countries that have not been civilized. This assumption is also mistaken. Countries of all stature across the globe, including the United States have had recent occurrences of the plague. This includes around a dozen deaths a year. While the plague is not gone forever, it is far from imposing in modern times due to the rendition of the esteemed antibiotics, Yersinia Pestis ' greatest weakness. Since the discovery of penicillin is fairly recent, it was not even a consideration in the dark ages. Today the plague can be effectively treated in the same way was pneumonia, and if caught in early stages will render any symptoms barely noticeable. If not, any doctor fleeing champions can get a taste of the Great Pestilence. In short, we have come a long way in the scene of medical technology and the plague poses a much more miniscule threat than it once