Bubonic Plague :: essays research papers

Essay On Bubonic PlagueIn the ahead of time 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic molest occur cherry-red in the east. Plague in the first place affects rodents, scarce fleas can transmit the disease to people. Once people argon infected, they infect others very rapidly. Plague causes fever and a painful gawk of the lymph glands called buboes, which is how it gets its name. The disease also causes spots on the skin that are red at first and then turn black. Since China was one of the busiest of the worlds duty nations, it was simply a matter of time before the outbreak of ravage in China spread to western Asia and Europe. In October of 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea, one of the key link up in trade with China. When the ships docked in Sicily, many of those on board were already dying of plague. Within days the disease spread to the city and the surround countryside. An eyewitness tells what happened "Realizing what a deadly disas ter had come to them, the people readily drove the Italians from their city. But the disease remained, and soon death was everywhere. Fathers abandoned their disgusted sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying. Friars and nuns were left to care for the sick, and monasteries and convents were soon deserted, as they were stricken, too. Bodies were left in empty houses, and there was no one to provide them a Christian burial."The disease struck and killed people with terrible speed. The Italian writer Boccaccio said its victims often "ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."By the following August, the plague had spread as far coupling as England, where people called it "The Black Death" because of the black spots it produced on the skin. A terrible killer was loose across Europe, and Medieval medical specialty had nothing to combat it. In winter the disease seemed to disappear, but only because fleas--whic h were now helping to carry it from person to person--are dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims. After five years 25 gazillion people were dead--one-third of Europes people. Even when the worst was over, smaller outbreaks continued, not just for years, but for centuries. The survivors lived in constant fear of the plagues return, and the disease did not disappear until the 1600s.