Essay: The black death

The black death was one of the most catastrophic pandemics in human history. It killed one third of the population in Europe between the years 1346 and 1353.The black plague was a disease that was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis which circulates amongst wild rodents. This bacterium lives in a large number and density which is known to be called a plague focus or plague reservoir. The black death affected humans when rodents specifically black rats coexisted with humans and lived in close proximity to one another. When the rats died of plague, the hungry fleas began to look for blood meals and that’s where they would find humans to feed on. On January 9th 1897 two hundred and sixty-nine soldiers and eight civilians that were on board the British transport called the Nubia traveled from Calcutta to Plymouth and became infected with the plague, on the longer voyages like this one, the humidity is not too low and therefore the fleas that were on the rat can survive for a long period of time after its host the rat has become deceased .
Because many people did not understand the makeup of the disease they believed the black death was retribution for sins against God and thought the only way to vanquish the plague was to win the forgiveness of God. Many people accused the Jews of poisoning the wells that resulted in the plague, and this accusation resulted in a massive amount persecution towards these individuals. The black plague caused a lot of fear and pandemonium. Many people left cities in panic abandoning family members. Others convinced that the end was coming fell into wild debauchery, but other people prayed for their salvation. Flagellants who are people who subject themselves or others to flogging either as a religious discipline or for sexual gratification went from town to town whipping themselves to demonstrate their penitence for thirty-three and a half days. They repeated this ritual three times a day.
Healthy people did everything they could to avoid the risk of getting the plague which included fleeing town. Doctors refused to see plagued patients and priests rejected to administer last rites. The plague did not only affect people, it also killed many animals especially sheep, the consequences of this animal’s death was that there was a wool shortage. The people who lived and survived the Black Death era suffered a common crisis in faith, instead of them giving their glory to God that they have survived such an epidemic. People became doubtful because they turned to the church for answers as to why the plague was happening and the church did not help. At this time Priests and doctors had the most contact with the people infected by the plague making their death rates increase. With that being said there was a case where many new heretics came up, these were the people who held onto their faith during the tough time.
The approximated death toll from the black plague in Europe was twenty million deaths which was about one-third of the population. Many of the cities lost over forty percent of the people residing the area. In Paris half of the population was deceased and cities like Venice, Hamburg, and Bremen was estimated to have lost at least sixty percent of the population
Today the plague is still in existence in various parts of the world. There was a reported of more than two thousand human cases in 2003, a majority of those cases where in Africa, but the last recorded outbreak took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the year 2006 when at least fifty people died. Countries like the United States, China, India, Vietnam, and Mongolia are all countries that confirmed human plague cases in the recent years. Today, most people survive this epidemic when given the correct antibiotics. Good sanitation habits and pest control help prevent plague outbreaks in the modern age.
Medieval people called the epidemic of the 14th century the “Great Pestilence” or the “Great Plague” on the contrary, writers contemporary to the plague referred to it as the “Great Mortality .” In the 16th century the Swedish and Danish described the event as black for the first time but it was not because of the effects the disease has, but it was coined the term black death because of glum, lugubrious, or dreadful as to denote the terribleness and gloom of the events.