Black Death

 Black Death

The Black Death, otherwise known as the Pestilence, the Great Morality, or the Plague, was a bubonic plague pandemic that took place in Western Eurasia and North Africa, lasting from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people, reaching its climax in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis, which was spread by fleas and rats. However, the plague probably branched out and had a new variant, being spread by one person to another, through contact of aerosols, or just air. This caused the septicemic or pneumonic plagues, both of which are forms of the bacterium’s 3 different pandemic types, the third being bubonic.

The origin of the Black Death has been argued over. Genetic analysis points to the evolution of Yersinia pestis in the Tian Shan mountains on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China 2,600 years ago. However, the cause and location of the sudden outbreak of the virus remain unclear. It mainly points towards Central Asia, China, the Middle East and Europe. The pandemic was reportedly first introduced to Europe during the siege of the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in Crimea by the Golden Horde army of Jani Beg, who were Mongols, in 1347.  From Crimea, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that traveled on Genoese ships, spreading through the Mediterranean Basin and reaching North Africa, Western Asia, and the rest of Europe through Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula.

There is evidence that once it came ashore, the Black Death mainly spread person-to-person as pneumonic plague, thus explaining the quick inland spread of the epidemic, which was faster than what would be expected if the primary cause spread was rat fleas causing bubonic plague. In 2022, it was discovered that there was a sudden surge of deaths in what is today Kyrgyzstan from the Black Death in the late 1330s, which when combined with genetic evidence, indicated that the initial spread may not have been due to Mongol conquests in the 14th century, as theorized earlier.

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Facts:

The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic of the same bacterium, with the first taking place 800 years before, in the 6th century, known as the Justinian Plague, which killed 30-50 million, accounting for half of the world’s population and the time.

At the time of the outbreak, people used to throw out their waste in the streets, which served as excellent breeding grounds for rats that helped spread the disease.

The virus was called the Black Death because of dark boils filled with pus and blood that were found on peoples’ skin.

A third plague pandemic began in China and India in the 1890s and eventually reached the United States, with infections being especially dangerous in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was during this pandemic that the real cause (Y. pestis) was discovered, along with a cure.

According to rumors at the time, it was said that India had been completely depopulated by the second plague, but it was obviously false, but it gives a hint of how bad the contagion was.

It was only found that the plague was caused by the Y. pestis bacteria in the early 2000s. Until then, scientists thought that it was caused by typhus and anthrax.

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Along with the plague came a new type of doctor: physicians called plague doctors. They wore black cloaks and a mask that had a bird-like beak and a cane. Each part was surprisingly useful for the plague doctors. The cane was used by them to hit and ward away infected people that ran together at them as a mob. The beak was stuffed with herbs, because the doctors believed that the plague was caused by bad air, and thought the herbs would filter it out. However, the useless-seeming cloak was actually the most important. They were covered in wax, which drove away the fleas that carried the virus.

The virus is still not completely eradicated off the face of the earth. Very few animals carry it, but it is still contagious and can badly affect any infected person if it is left untreated. However, nowadays, strong antibiotics can be used to cure someone in case they get infected.