There have been many killers in the history of the world. There have been serial killers, there have been murders. But none of them can compare to these two killers. Aids and The Bubonic Plague(The Black Death) They have been the worse killers because when they strike, we have no way of curing them. Both of these diseases are fatal. There is no cure for them. That is what makes these two so frightening and scary. We have no idea where these two epidemics came from, there have been stipulation but no single person can say where they originated or who or what brought either of the two. Eventually the Bubonic plague stopped after claiming 1/4 of Europe's population. Unfortunately Aids does not look like it will die down any time soon. These diseases have been the worse killers of our time. But there are some similarities between the two.
The Black Death(Bubonic Plague) began in Central Asia in the 14th century in the mid-1300's. It was said to have lasted over 400 years. Its symptoms were the swelling of the armpits and other areas of the body, mostly the groin and the neck, another symptom would be rings around your cheeks, the main symptom was black patches around the skin caused by bleeding around the buboes(swollen lymph glands). About one fourth of Europe died within a few years after the Plague was introduced to Europe in 1347. Europe wasn't the only place to be hit with the Plague. The Far East was also affected by it to, though not as severe as Europe was. Many scientists and people believe that rats and other rodents brought the epidemic to Europe. Most Epidemics are most likely to occur when rats live closely with humans in areas where there is poverty with poor sanitation and that also share an environment with wild rodents that have plague bacteria. The bubonic Plague eventually came to an end. It ended for many different reasons. Seasonal or weather changes can greatly affect the survival of the rodent host or fleas. Measures were also taken to control rodents and fleas, sanitation measures were also taken along with the use of antibiotics to prevent the disease. When the Bubonic Plague first came to Europe nobody knew what to do. The affects that it had on Europe was tremendous. Entire villages and cities were taken out by the plague.
The Black Death (also called the "plague" or the "pestilence", the bacteria that causes it is Yersinia Pestis) was a devastating pandemic causing the death of over one-third of Europe's population in its major wave of 1348-1349. Yersinia Pestis had two major strains: the first, the Bubonic form, was carried by fleas on rodents and caused swelling of the lymph nodes, or "buboes", and lesions under the skin, with a fifty-percent mortality rate; the second, the pneumonic form, was airborne after the bacteria had mutated and caused fluids to build up in the lungs and other areas, causing suffocation and a seventy-percent mortality rate.
In 1347, Europe began to perceive what the Plague had in store. Terrible outcomes arose when the citizens caught the Plague from fleas. The transfer of fleas to humans caused the outbreak of the Black Death. Infections that rodents caught were passed on to fleas, which would find a host to bite, spreading the terrible disease (“Plague the Black Death” n.pag.). When Genoese ships arrived back to Europe from China, with dead sailors and...
The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague is perhaps the greatest and horrifying tragedies to have ever happened to humanity. The Plague was ferocious and had such a gruesome where people would die in such a morbid fashion that today we are obsessed with this subject.
The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague and Bubonic Plague, was a catastrophic plague that started out in Asia and began to spread into Europe. In the span of three years, the Black Death killed about one third of all the people in Europe. The plague started out in the Gobi Dessert in Mongolia during the 1320’s. From the desert the plague began to spread outwards in all directions. China was among the first to suffer from the plague in the early 1330s before the plague hit Europe.
Today the world is plagued with a similar deadly disease. The AIDS epidemic continues to be incurable. In an essay written by David Herlihy, entitled 'Bubonic Plague: Historical Epidemiology and the Medical Problems,' the historic bubonic plague is compared with
The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague. This disease was caused by the bacteria “Yersinia Pestis” which is spread by wild rodents that live in big numbers. The Black Death was one of the biggest pandemics in history and eradicated over an estimated 75-200 million people around the years of 1346-1353. The Black Death had an impact on society and changed it in many ways some of these impacted were; Religion, Political structure and Health. The Black Death killed more Europeans than any other endemic or war, however is caused society to change forever.
Every year millions of people die. People die either from natural causes or from another source like murder. Cancer and AIDS are the number one diseases leading to death in the 21st century. (Jueneman 1) However, they have not always been the leading diseases. Around as early as 542 AD, a deadly disease broke out in Constaniople and quickly spread around the world within a few hundred years. This disease in considered the worst natural disaster in history. The Bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, is historically the disease that has caused the most deaths and caused China, Europe, and India to shortly stop trade altogether.
The plague was spread by fleas, which were not effected by the disease. Fleas first infected the rats, which lived off garbage and sewage. The rats then spread the infection to the humans. Rats were a common sight in the cities, due to the poor sanitary conditions, so no one suspected them (www.tartans.com). In the winter the plague seemed to disappear, but only because fleas were dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims (www.byu.edu). The effects of the plague were devastating. After just five years, twenty-five million people were dead - one third of Europe's population. Once people were infected they infected others very rapidly. As a result, in order to avoid the disease, many fled to the countryside where the lower population density helped to decrease the speed at which the disease spread (www.tartans.com). From a person's time of infection to his or her death was less than one week (www.home.nycap.rr.com). The plague became known as "The Black Death" because of the discoloration of the skin and black enlarged lymph nodes that appeared on the second day of contracting the disease. The term "The Black Death" was not invented until after 1800. Contemporaries called it "the pestilence" (Cantor 7).
The Black Death was a dark period of human history, approximately 60% of European died. Black Death also known as the bubonic plague, it happened during 1346-1353. The plague spread during the crusades along the ships, and it was originated from a mice from Asia. It is a irremediable disease. The plague made so many negative influence on society, as well as positive effects on human population, such as social, medical and economical effects.
It has been called “the greatest catastrophe ever.” That statement was made in reference to the Black Death which was one of many bubonic plague epidemics. Throughout history, the bubonic plague proved itself to be an extremely lethal disease. Outbreaks of the bubonic plague were devastating because of the stunning number of deaths in each of the populations it reached. The Black Death was the worst epidemic and disaster of the bubonic plague in all of history. The Black Death refers to a period of several years in which affected populations were decimated. The bubonic plague is a disease started by bacteria. The disease has horrible symptoms, and most of the victims die after getting the plague. The bubonic plague spread easily between different areas of people. The Black Death was not the first epidemic of the bubonic plague; there was another outbreak several hundred years before. It is important to understand the history of the bubonic plague and reflect upon the Black Death because plague outbreaks can still occur today.
Sweeping through Western Europe during the fourteenth century, the Bubonic Plague wiped out nearly one third of the population and did not regard: status, age or even gender. All of this occurred as a result of a single fleabite. Bubonic Plague also known as Black Death started in Asia and traveled to Europe by ships. The Plague was thought to be spread by the dominating empire during this time, the Mongolian Empire, along the Silk Road. The Bubonic Plague was an infectious disease spread by fleas living on rats, which can be easily, be attached to traveler to be later spread to a city or region. Many factors like depopulation, decreasing trade, and huge shifts in migrations occurred during the Bubonic Plague. During Bubonic Plague there were also many different beliefs and concerns, which include fear, exploitation, religious and supernatural superstition, and a change of response from the fifteenth to eighteen century.
At this time however, cold weather and rains wiped out many crops creating a shortage of food for humans. Rats also went through this shortage in food. This made them “crowd in cities, providing an optimal environment for disease”(Karin Lehnardt in 41 Catastrophic Facts about the Black Death). Before the black death spread through Europe, sanitation wasn’t very good. Living conditions were bad so when the black death came to Europe, it spread more rapidly because people were not clean and healthy. Another reason the plague spread so fast was because the dead “bodies were piled up inside and outside city walls where they lay until mass graves could be dug”(Karin Lehnardt in 41 Catastrophic Facts about the Black Death). This made the air very polluted and contributed the spread of the epidemic. In total, the black death killed about thirty million people. This was about one-third the population of Europe. Some towns were completely wiped out. Because of this, medieval people thought everyone would eventually die, although we now know that some populations did survive. Also, because people were not being saved by the church, their beliefs were questioned. Less people dedicated their lives to the church because of this. Both the poor and the rich died but more than one-half the people dead were poor. This was also a result of poor sanitation and living conditions. The Black Death initiated in China in the early 1340’s
Imagine living in a time filled with nothing but fear. The thing you fear cannot be touched or seen but will put you to a slow miserable death. In the 1300s people were struck with a great plague, which has now been named “The Black Death”. The Black Death killed off populations with just one sweep. Historians call this the biggest tragedy of all time. The question is what caused this plague and how does something like this happen? Overtime historians have boiled it down to 2 and some may say 3 explanations, which are religion, science, and humans. With the help of a book The Black Death by Rosemary Horrox I was able to find explanations of them all. Who may know which is the correct reason for such a thing but what your think caused it is for you to decide.
The Black Death plague had disastrous consequences for Europe in the 14th century. After the initial outbreak in Europe, 1347, it continued for around five years and then mysteriously disappeared. However, it broke out again in the 1360s and every few decades thereafter till around 1700. The European epidemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which began in Asia and spread across trade routes. When it reached Europe, a path of destruction began to emerge.
The Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death, is a raging disease. Most people think of it as the physical Grim Reaper of their town or community. The disease lasted about six years, 1347 to 1352. The Bubonic Plague was a travesty that has traveled throughout Europe and has raged and decimated both large and small towns, putting Europe through a lot. The disease spreads through a bacteria called Yersinia Pestis.