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The Black Plague

The Black Plague. Also know as the Black Death. We now know that the most common form of the Black Death was the Bubonic Plague (still exists today, but very much under control). How was it spread? This disease was spread by fleas which lived on the black rat.

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The Black Plague

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  1. The Black Plague • Also know as the Black Death. • We now know that the most common form of the Black Death was the Bubonic Plague (still exists today, but very much under control). • How was it spread? • This disease was spread by fleas which lived on the black rat. • The fleas sucked the rat’s blood which contained the plague germs. • When the rat died the fleas jumped on to humans and passed on the deadly disease.

  2. The Black Plague • Plague has three forms: • Bubonic plague (infection of the lymph glands) • Septicemia plague (infection of the blood), • Pneumonic plague (infection of the lungs). • Pneumonic plague can spread from person to person. • Symptoms: • Day 1: swelling on areas of the body that were any where from the size of an egg to an apple. • Day 2: Non-stop vomiting and a high fever. • Day 3: Internal bleeding caused discoloration of the skin. • Day 4: It attacks the nervous system. This caused you to spasm uncontrollably. • Day 5: sometimes the swellings from day 1 would burst, and black liquid (hence the name the Black Death) would pour out. If this happened you usually lived. However, in over 90% of the cases this didn’t happen, and the black liquid caused mass infections and you died painfully.

  3. The Black Plague • Medieval people didn’t know about disease causing germs. • They thought that people’s bodies were poisoned (or that God was punishing us, which is why the renaissance took place immediately following). • Had no clue the plague was spread by rats and fleas. • It didn’t help that they had 0 sanitation back then. • Homes were built so close together, and garbage and human waste were just flung out windows onto the streets. • This is why rats were so common amongst people back then. • Because they noticed people lived when the swellings burst, it made since to them to just drain the swellings in hopes of survival.

  4. The Black Plague • This is called ‘bloodletting.’ • Bloodletting is the process they would use until about 100 years ago to attempt to cure several diseases / infections (it rarely worked). • Some people were blamed for the plague. • Jews actually washed and used their own ‘community’ water wells. • Thus, very few known Jews in each community ever became sick. • People (spurred on by the Catholic Church) then assumed Jews were ‘poisoning’ their water wells. • This lead to a mass genocide of Jewish people, as they were often rounded up and killed for their alleged ‘crimes.’

  5. The Black Plague • In the end: • 35% of the world’s population was killed off by the plague. • That was just over 38 million people back then (more than any disease before or since) • In today’s world, that would be roughly 2.5 billion people (35%) • Or 1 of everyone 10 Americans. • The eventual killing off of local rats, and the closure of most sea ports is what lead to the decline of the Black Plague.

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