The Black Death also known as the Pestilence , the Great Mortality or the Plague [a] was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Afro-Eurasia from to It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the death of 75— million people in Eurasia and North Africa , peaking in Europe from to The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic. The origin of the Black Death is disputed. The pandemic originated either in Central Asia or East Asia but its first definitive appearance was in Crimea in
impacts of the plague
Signs and symptoms
Roughly one out of three people died as this medieval plague quickly traveled along European trade routes, devastating communities along the way. Sometime in a sailing ship moored in a Mediterranean port unwittingly unleashed one of the most destructive pathogens in history. Unloaded with its cargo and passengers were some deadly stowaways: flea-ridden black rats carrying the bubonic plague. It was a scenario played out many times in ports all around Europe, and the results were always the same: Sickness, suffering, and death on what seemed a cataclysmic scale. Most historians agree that it was bubonic plague, a bacterial disease that periodically flared up in Asia and Europe. The so-called Plague of Justinian devastated the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century, killing an estimated 25 million people. After the Black Death, it continued to strike large numbers of Europeans, most notably in London in
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An angel points at a sinner who has been the victim not pictured of the plague in a 15th-century painting. Sometime in a sailing ship moored in a Mediterranean port unwittingly unleashed one of the most destructive pathogens in history. Unloaded with its cargo and passengers were some deadly stowaways: flea-ridden black rats carrying the bubonic plague. It was a scenario played out many times in ports all around Europe, and the results were always the same: Sickness, suffering, and death on what seemed a cataclysmic scale. Most historians agree that it was bubonic plague, a bacterial disease that periodically flared up in Asia and Europe. The so-called Plague of Justinian devastated the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century, killing an estimated 25 million people.
Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis. The three types of plague are the result of the route of infection: bubonic plague, septicemic plague , and pneumonic plague. Prevention is through public health measures such as not handling dead animals in areas where plague is common. Bubonic plague is an infection of the lymphatic system , usually resulting from the bite of an infected flea, Xenopsylla cheopis the Oriental rat flea. The flea is parasitic on house and field rats and seeks out other prey when its rodent hosts die. The bacteria remain harmless to the flea, allowing the new host to spread the bacteria. Rats were an amplifying factor to bubonic plague due to their common association with humans as well as the nature of their blood. Once established, bacteria rapidly spread to the lymph nodes and multiply.
