The Black Death was an infectious disease that spread from Asia across to Europe in the 14th century. The Black Death lasted for three years, killing 60 percent of Europe’s population. The Black is a combination of three related diseases. The first disease was the bubonic plague. This was named this because of the buboes that appeared on the victim’s body. The second disease was the pulmonary/pneumonic plague. This disease attacked the victim’s lungs and were always fatal. The third disease was the septicaemic plague. This plague attacked the victim’s bloodstream. This disease was serious because the bacteria multiplied really quickly in the bloodstream, causing the patient to die within hours of infection.
Symptoms of the …show more content…
The victim of the pneumonic plague suffers from trouble in breathing, chest pain, cough, fever, headache, overall body weakness and bloody sputum. The victim of the septicaemic plague suffers from abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, bleeding, shock, body weakness and their skin turns black.
How the Black Death Spread
In 1894 scientists identified a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which was later understood to be the root cause of all three forms of the plague. These bacteria were transmitted by fleas onto people. The fleas were commonly found living on the bodies of black rats. The rats were common on medieval towns because of the rubbish and human wastes on the streets, so it was easier for the fleas to spread the disease.
Cause of the disease
There are many cause for this disease. Some of these are the rats, the habits of the medieval people and miasma. The disease might have come from rats because they carried disease carrying fleas. The habits of the medieval was a cause for the disease because they only had baths once or twice a year, they threw rubbish and human wastes from their windows and they drank water that were polluted by wastes. Miasma was a theory held by the people of medieval ages as the cause for the disease. Miasma was the name for the bad air that were in the