These black rats like to live near or in human housing. This highly contagious infection is spread to humans by fleas that are biting the black rats and contracting the infection. The infected flea then bites a human and leaves the infection in the flea bites. When an over populated area of black rats becomes more over populated this can be another cause of the spread of the Black plaque faster. The growth of population in cities and small towns tend to lead to decline in living conditions, thus leading to famine and epidemics causing more cases if the Black Plaque.
The disease spread from nation to nation, killing millions of people and seriously affecting their lives especially Britain. It is thought to be one of the most devastating plagues in human history. It is thought to have begun in the mid 1340’s in China, caused by dirty rodents who had infected fleas. The fleas travelled through Asia and lived on Rats and all sorts of other creatures. Some of these creatures became passengers on merchant ships that sailed to Europe.
The terrible disease caused not only massive numbers of deaths, but also caused many minority groups to be blamed and persecuted for "causing" the Black Death. The symptoms were a bubo in the groin, where the thigh meets the trunk; or a small swelling under the armpit; sudden fever; spitting blood and saliva. It was such a frightful thing that when it got into a house, as was said, no one remained. There was so much death destruction that bodies would just be lying around and there was no place to bury them. People might as well fear that if they touch the bodies to bury them then they themselves would also get the disease and die.
Symptoms would include red, grossly inflamed and swollen lymph nodes, called buboes (hence the name bubonic), high fever, delirium, and convulsions. However, if the bacterial infection spread to the lungs (pneumonic plague) or to the bloodstream (septicemic plague) the unfortunate victim would certainly die, usually within hours with symptoms too horrific to recount. The Elizabethan pamphleteer Thomas Dekker wrote a chilling account of the chaos and despair brought by the plague: Imagine then that all this while, Death (like a Spanish Leagar, or rather like stalking Tamberlaine) hath pitched his tents, (being nothing but a heape of winding sheets tacked together) in the sinfully-polluted Suburbes: the Plague is Muster-maister and Marshall of the field: Burning Feauers, Boyles, Blaines, and Carbuncles, the Leaders, Lieutenants, Serieants, and Corporalls: the maine Army consisting (like Dunkirke) of a mingle-mangle, viz. dumpish Mourners, merry Sextons, hungry Coffin-sellers, scrubbing Bearers, and nastie Graue-makers: but indeed they are the Pioners of the Campe, that are imployed onely (like Moles) in casting up of
The Black Death The Black Death, known as the Black Plague, or the Bubonic Plague killed one third of the population of Europe during the 13th and 14th centuries. The beginning of this plague set the scene for years suffering. It left the social and economic world in pause. The Black Death became a subject of art, music and folklore and it influenced the mind of the people. The impact of this mass killer caused disorder to the medieval society because of its unknown origin, the unknown causes and preventions, its deathly symptoms and its breakdown of life.
The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a disease that lasted from 1348 to 1351 that impacted the world culturally and emotionally, in addition to wiping out thousands of people. The Plague came from Asia to Europe and was caused by fleas that were transported by rats through trading routes. It is difficult to know the exact number of victims, but estimates range from 25% to 60% of the European population succumbed to it. According to Joseph Byrne, in The Black Death, current estimates are that between 75 and 200 million people died from the plague. At the time, it was referred to as the “The Great Mortality” or “The Pestilence”, but people had no idea what caused it, how to prevent the spread of the disease, or how to effectively
During the 14th century people began to become extremely ill with this strange disease they called the Black Death. The Black Death which was now given the name the black plague, could be caught in two different forms; one being the bubonic plaque and the other being the pneumonic plague. The plague was very common in places where there was a very large and crowded population, a lot of rodents and was very dirty. This terrible epidemic took place from 1347-1350. It caused millions of deaths and was highly contagious.
The Plague, also known as the black death, was one of the most fatal pandemics to ever happen. The disease started in Central Asia. It first infected fleas then rats. The rats started moving into cities, marking the start of a tremendous bloodshed. The disease infected sailors when rats immigrated into ships and kept finding its way through ports, spreading around in different continents.
WHAT IS IT PART Well the black death is one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, a plague that swept through Europe and Asia which killed millions in the 1300's. A plague is a disease that spreads extremely quickly and kills many people violently. Most scientist think that the Black Death was caused by a type of bacteria called Yersinia Pestis carried by the oriental rat flea. These fleas infested black rats and unfortunately, due to the unsanitary lifestyles of humans during the Middle Ages, these rats were literally everywhere. Once contracted by a human the disease became airborne.
Cholera is one of the biggest killers, killing around 120,000 people each year. Vibrio cholerae causes the disease, and is transmitted by the ingestion of water or food contaminated with faecal material. Once in the small intestine, the bacteria use their flagellum to propel themselves through the mucus lining of the intestinal wall. The Vibrio cholerae produce a toxic protein; one part of this protein binds to specific carbohydrate receptors on the cell-surface membrane. The toxic part enters the epithelial cells, causing the ion channels of the cell-surface membrane to open, so that chloride ions flood out of the epithelial cells and into the lumen of the small intestine.