The Black Plague

The Black Plague was a horrible disease that killed 25 million people in Europe.

How did the plague start? According to history.com, the Black Plague started in the early 1340’s spreading in China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt. It’s thought it spread in Asia 2,000 years ago and was most likely spread by trading ships. It would spread really quickly because it was contagious. Somebody could be perfectly healthy and the next morning be dead. Today, scientists say that it spread by a bacillus called Yersinia pestis. It would spread from person to person in the air and from the bites of infected rats and fleas.

After it spread it got so bad that healthy people did everything they could to avoid it. Doctors refused to take in patients, priests refused to do last rites and shopkeepers closed their shops. Many people left the cities for the countryside, but even there the people couldn’t escape it. It was in rats, mice, chipmunks, prairie dogs, rabbits, and squirrels.  People even left their sick and dying loved ones just to survive.

The symptoms when you first got it were certain swelling either in the groin or under the armpit, and grew to the size of a common apple and others were the size of an egg. Blood and pus would come out of the weird boils which was followed by a fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea terrible aches, pains, and in the end, death. It attacks the lymphatic system which then causes swelling in the lymph nodes.

The plague never really ended and actually came back a few years later. But officials were able to slow down the spread by keeping sailors that were arriving in isolation until it was clear that they weren’t carrying the plague. They were held on their ships for 30 days, which was then later increased to 40 days.

People wonder if the plague still exists and the answer is yes, the plague does still exist. According to National Geographic, The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that most cases have appeared in Africa since the 1990’s. There are now antibiotics that treat it, but the disease hasn’t been eliminated.