Black Death Disease Facts: What You Need to Know About the Deadly Plague
The term "plague" brings to mind the Black Death which arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347. At that time, people who gathered around the docks to greet 12 Genoese trading ships were surprised when most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead; those who were alive were gravely ill.
They cannot keep their food down, they had high fever, chills, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and in short order, death. Most strange of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus.
The Black Death was also terrifyingly contagious. It was written in history that the mere touching of clothes can communicate the illness to another. It then spread throughout France and has wiped out almost one third of the European population between the 14th and 17th centuries.
Understanding the Plague
The plague, which was then known as the Black Death, is spread by a bacillus called Yersina Pestis, discovered by French biologist Alexandre Yersin at the end of the 19th century. The germ travels from one person to another through the air, as well as through the bites of infected fleas and rats.
It needs to be understood that as long as the bacterium infests rodents and fleas, the plague that almost wiped the whole of Europe still has a bearing around the globe today.
The Plague in Our Generation
Nowadays, the plague can be treated with antibiotics, if caught early enough, says WWLP. However, like most traitorous diseases and illnesses, the symptoms are not that obvious, and people who have caught them would think that they just have flu.
Washington Post says most victims in the United States come from the West. Globally, it also hits South America and Asia particularly Madagascar, Peru and India. The hardest hit was Congo with 10,000 cases between 2000 to 2009. The emergence of the plague always goes back to the existence of infested rodents and fleas.
The disease is coined to be uncommon and may not have in-depth studies. Some may have been infected but recovered without antibiotics. In others, where the disease has reportedly progressed, it can develop into three forms:
1. Bubonic Plague- associated with swollen and black and blue lymph nodes, usually near the site of the flea bite
2. Septicemic- infects the blood
3. Pneumonic- infects the lungs
As said, most of these forms can have the patient under full recovery with antibiotics, unlike the helpless and alarming scenario in the earlier centuries.