#yersina pestis

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 53: Medievalish and Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions a the previous iteration. This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct earlier time grouping. In some cases a culture lasted a really long time and I grouped them by whether it was likely the later or earlier grouping made the most sense with the information I had.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All cultures and time periods welcome.

[massgrav]

Glorious Putrefaction

.

Inspired by Ne Obliviscaris

[astriiformes]

Researching the Black Plague at midnight for a presentation for my Norwegian class (as one does) and

Despite knowing the scientific name for the plague (Yersina pestis) for well over a decade now, I somehow did not know that the genus name come from one of its co-discoverers, Alexandre Yersin -- who it should be noted did not actually name the plague after himself, but there was some posthumous genus shuffling and I guess someone decided that was a good idea.

And I. Hm. Hmmm.

People talk about unfortunate organisms to lend your name to the nomenclature of, but usually it's a joke about how the organism in question is like, a spider, or a particularly unlovely slime mold, or something else that is definitely not "cute" but is probably still deeply beloved by a certain sect of biologists.

However I can't help but think that perhaps naming the infamous plague, responsible for more deaths than potentially any other bacterium in history and mass amounts of human suffering, after just, like, a guy, is perhaps not the hm. Shall we say the vibe that most people are going for.

[nashali-mga2023mi5019]

Black hat research - the black death/plague

okay first thing first... fleas are insects they have met the criteria :3

Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacteria, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. It is transmitted between animals through fleas. Humans can be infected through:

the bite of infected vector fleas

unprotected contact with infectious bodily fluids or contaminated materials

the inhalation of respiratory droplets/small particles from a patient with pneumonic plague.

Plague is a very severe disease in people, particularly in its septicaemic (systemic infection caused by circulating bacteria in bloodstream) and pneumonic forms, with a case-fatality ratio of 30% to 100% if left untreated. The pneumonic form is invariably fatal unless treated early. It is especially contagious and can trigger severe epidemics through person-to-person contact via droplets in the air.

Historically, plague was responsible for widespread pandemics with high mortality. It was known as the "Black Death" during the fourteenth century, causing more than 50 million deaths in Europe. Nowadays, plague is easily treated with antibiotics and the use of standard precautions to prevent acquiring infection.

There are two main forms of plague infection, depending on the route of infection: bubonic and pneumonic.

Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague and is caused by the bite of an infected flea. Plague bacillus, Y. pestis, enters at the bite and travels through the lymphatic system to the nearest lymph node where it replicates itself. The lymph node then becomes inflamed, tense, and painful, and is called a ‘bubo’. At advanced stages of the infection, the inflamed lymph nodes can turn into open sores filled with pus. Human-to-human transmission of bubonic plague is rare. Bubonic plague can advance and spread to the lungs, which is the more severe type of plague called pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague, or lung-based plague, is the most virulent form of plague. Incubation can be as short as 24 hours. Any person with pneumonic plague may transmit the disease via droplets to other humans. Untreated pneumonic plague, if not diagnosed and treated early, can be fatal. However, recovery rates are high if detected and treated in time (within 24 hours of onset of symptoms).

Plague. Fleas are the vector for the plague (or black death), which infects man as well as rats and other rodents. There are three forms of plague that occur in humans: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. The bubonic type, in the form of the bacterium, Yersina pestis, is transmitted by fleas. The disease is passed as fleas regurgitate plague bacilli when biting when flea feces are scratched into the skin, or when the host ingests an infected flea. The plague has killed millions of people in history, especially in the 14th and 17th centuries. In 14th-century Europe, the great pandemic resulted in twenty-five million deaths. The plague is still a problem to society, with some 5,000 cases annually.

Cause and outbreak

Having originated in China and Inner Asia, the Black Death decimated the army of the Kipchak Khan Janibeg while he was besieging the Genoese trading port of Kaffa (now Feodosiya) in Crimea (1347). With his forces disintegrating, Janibeg used trebuchets to catapult plague-infested corpses into the town to infect his enemies. From Kaffa, Genoese ships carried the epidemic westward to Mediterranean ports, whence it spread inland, affecting Sicily (1347); North Africa, mainland Italy, Spain, and France (1348); and Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and the Low Countries (1349). A ship from Calais carried the plague to Melcombe Regis, Dorset, in August 1348. It reached Bristol almost immediately and spread rapidly throughout the southwestern counties of England. London suffered most violently between February and May 1349, East Anglia and Yorkshire during that summer. The Black Death reached the extreme north of England, Scotland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic countries in 1350.

There were recurrences of the plague in 1361–63, 1369–71, 1374–75, 1390, and 1400. Modern research has suggested that, over that period of time, the plague was introduced into Europe multiple times, coming along trade routes in waves from Central Asia as a result of climate fluctuations that affected populations of rodents infested with plague-carrying fleas.

info from

[polhpl]

Clash of lords 2 account on my phone reset itself

Being paid in cash, rather than in kind (in the granting of privileges such as the right to collect firewood), meant that peasants had more money to spend in towns. Their descendants benefited from a continued concentration of capital into a smaller and smaller number of hands.Īt the same time, the decline of feudalism and the rise of a wage-based economy following peasant demands for better labour conditions benefited urban elites. Wills became highly specific and wealthy businessmen, in particular, went to great lengths to ensure that their patrimony was no longer divided up after death, replacing the previous tendency to leave a third of all their resources to charity. In the longer term, however, people responded to the devastation by keeping money within the family. The sudden loss of at least a third of Europe’s population led to a redistribution of wealth for everyone else. But we can certainly see parallels with the way that the Black Death strengthened the power of the state and accelerated the domination of key markets by a handful of large companies. The mid-14th Century economy is too removed from the size, speed, and interconnectedness of the modern market to give exact comparisons. While small companies rely upon government support to prevent them collapsing, many others – mainly the much larger ones involved in home delivery – are profiting handsomely from the new trading conditions. This has strong parallels with the current situation in many countries across the world. Although the Black Death caused short-term losses for Europe’s largest companies, in the long term, they concentrated their assets and gained a greater share of the market and influence with governments. These lines could almost have been written today.īut another less often remarked consequence of the Black Death was the rise of wealthy entrepreneurs and business-government links. It generated such horror that children did not dare to visit their dying parents, nor parents their children, but fled for fear of contagion as if from leprosy or a serpent. This sickness befell people everywhere, but especially the middling and lower classes, rarely the great. In Aberdeen, John of Fordun, a Scottish chronicler, recorded that: The traumatic experience of the Black Death, which killed perhaps 80% of those who caught it, drove many people to write in an attempt to make sense of what they had lived through. If you ever see a church or chapel all alone in a field, you are probably looking at the last remains of one of Europe’s lost villages. Houses fell into the ground and were covered by grass and earth, leaving only the church behind. One in ten villages in England (and in Tuscany and other regions) were lost and never re-founded. With a third of the workforce dead, the crops could not be harvested and communities fell apart. This huge number of deaths was accompanied by general economic devastation. The Black Death killed between a third and a half of the population of Europe and the Near East. The highly commercialised world of the Mediterranean ensured the plague’s swift transfer on merchant ships to Italy, and then across Europe. Originating in Central Asia, soldiers and caravans had brought bubonic plague – Yersina pestis, a bacterium carried on fleas that lived on rats – to ports on the Black Sea. The last stage was a high fever, and then death. This was followed by painful black lumps, or buboes, growing in the armpits and groin, which gave the disease its name: bubonic plague. They started off as mild and vague: headaches, aches, and nausea. In June 1348, people in England began reporting mysterious symptoms. This article originally appeared on The Conversation, and is republished under a Creative Commons licence.

[gwydionmisha]

I Found A 1613 Polish Guide To Surviving A Plague And It's Terrible

[the-busy-ghost]

I’m looking at Gordon’s seventeenth century map of Edinburgh now and there’s a particularly distinct difference between the old (formerly separate) burghs of Edinburgh and the Canongate that I never noticed before now. Yes the two are separated by a wall and they have some other differences but the most striking thing to me is that in Edinburgh they built on the backland. 

So along the part of what is now the Royal Mile that runs through the Canongate, there are long strips of garden behind each tenement. This is a pattern which was very common on the high street of a lot of Scottish burghs- one example which immediately springs to mind is Brechin, where you can still see gardens sloping down to the water if you walk along Skinner’s burn, which presumably conform to the ancient burgage plots. Alternatively, here’s Gordon’s map of the north-east burgh of Aberdeen, where you can see long thin gardens behind most of the houses:

(Detail from a map of Aberdeen, c.1661)

But once the Royal Mile enters Edinburgh IMMEDIATELY the situation changes. At the back of every five, six, even seven-storey tenement is yet more buildings and this is especially evident on the north side of the high street, where the ground slopes down to what was once the Nor’ Loch (and which is now occupied by Waverley Station and Princes Street Gardens). So not only did they have to build upwards in Edinburgh, they also had to build back on to the land included in the original toft. Compared to somewhere like London, seventeenth century Edinburgh was not that big but the population was extremely densely concentrated. The town is still famous for its tall closely packed buildings but even compared to other Scottish burghs it must have been distinctive, and I’d never realised the difference was so stark until I really looked closely and compared it side by side with the neighbouring burgh of Canongate. 

(Detail from a map of Edinburgh and Canongate c.1647 - I’ve drawn a red line at the point at the boundary between the two burghs, near a set of buildings that stick out into the street and which probably include the building now known as John Knox’s house)

I know I’m not saying anything particularly new it’s just such a distinct and stark difference that I hadn’t even thought about properly until I saw it so I had to babble. Personally I thought that, having been in Dunbar’s Close Garden and some of the other areas around the back of the Canongate, you can still *feel* the contrast with somewhere like Fleshmarket Close, even if you can’t necessarily see it. Of course that’s just my opinion, and certainly slum clearance up in the old town has opened up some of the areas behind the upper end of the Royal Mile while conversely modern buildings have covered a lot of the old backlands of the Canongate. But idk I just thought it was really cool. (I’m also enjoying looking at the Lawnmarket and trying to work out which of these really tall old buildings is Gladstone’s Land). 

Both images are reproduced with permission of the National Libraries of Scotland. Here is the source for the Aberdeen map and here is the Edinburgh map

[beautifuninthesilence]

So I’m at the hospital getting a gastric test and I was talking to the lady as we were walking back and she’s like ‘oh where do you go to school... what do you wanna do with your major?’ And I said ‘oh I really like diseases and the Black Death’ I said this right as I passed an old lady sitting in a hospital bed 🤦‍♀️

[aroturier]

There’s been a conversation going on the Black Butler forum about Sebastian’s actual pysical form and what he can and cannot do and i thought i’d post this here since the time line of comments e’s made in the anime about bits of history he’s seen or participated in. Ths is in reference to the best known one regarding im aving started the bubonic/pneumonic plague that swept through western Europe several times, but earliest in the mid 1300′s, which, coincidentally was around the same time the famous ‘Silk road’ became establised. Coincidence? Probably not.

We were discussingthe necessity of authors’ needing to maintain te same faces, distinctive hairstyles and colours on characters and often keeping the same clothes too, so readers don’t get lost.Not that Ms. toboso has tis problem, but the more an artist’s characters all look alike, the more needed such ‘crutches’ are. So they cannot really be used as support in an argument thhat Sebastian cannot change his face. His face is what identifies him, along with his distinctive haircut and butler’s uniform or ‘livery.’ The above is an example of how difficult it is to spot and recognise a character without these markers and a demonstration of why they are used in cartoons, anime and manga.

I drew this for a lark, imagining what Sebastian might’ve looked like if he chose to ride with the Mongols and raid the traders on the Silk Road (and slipping them a littlle yersina pestis wile he was at it.) I gave him a broadsword (like they favoured in Scotland) instead of one of those curly little bows or scimitars the Mongol solldiers used from on horseback because I couldn’t imagine Sebastian, who is built like a basketball player with mile long legs, could ever manage riding one of those stubby little short-necked Mongol ponies. Plus he wouldn’t need one anyway, as I’m sure he could outrun any horse. The Mongols were plenty superstitious and could easily have accepted the idea they had lucked out and recruited something like a Djinn on their side.

Anyway, could you have picked him out in a crowd of Mongol soldiers if Yana had drawn him sitting down around a campfire or something? I think many would have difficulty with that. So point, hopefully, taken. 

And anyway, for whatever excuse I could think up, it was fun to draw and fun to imagine. Maybe next I’ll do him in period Egyptian duds (bare chested with see-through linen around his hips-WOO HOO) hanging out, chewing the (Nile crocodile?) fat with Pharaoh Smenkhkara (circa 1335 B.C.E.-ish,) whom he casually name drops in season 2 episode 4.

Whoever floated the idea Sebastian was a young demon wasn’t paying attention.

[xixonau]

About Another Ancient Pandemic: Yersina Pestis

About Another Ancient Pandemic: Yersina Pestis

The current COVID pandemic has been plaguing us for more than 2 years now. And my mind filled with pandemic thoughts took flight in search of another pandemic of historic proportions: The Black Death or Bubonic Plague. Where did it originated and how did it spread? The Black Death has in fact recurred several times in human history. A human cadaver dating back 5000 years ago was found to have…

[deep-inside-the-borderline]

You were asked to ponder and expound upon whether you thought that we were in th

You were asked to ponder and expound upon whether you thought that we were in th

You were asked to ponder and expound upon whether you thought that we were in the early stages of WWIII. At that time, the U.S. had a $17 trillion debt. Well, that number has gone up and is today $18+ trillion and rapidly climbing: http://www.usdebtclock.org/ We also discussed how ISIS had documents on how to weaponize Yersina pestis, the invasion of Crimea and Ukraine by Russia, and al Qaeda’s…

[following-train]

You were asked to ponder and expound upon whether you thought that we were in th

You were asked to ponder and expound upon whether you thought that we were in th

You were asked to ponder and expound upon whether you thought that we were in the early stages of WWIII. At that time, the U.S. had a $17 trillion debt. Well, that number has gone up and is today $18+ trillion and rapidly climbing: http://www.usdebtclock.org/ We also discussed how ISIS had documents on how to weaponize Yersina pestis, the invasion of Crimea and Ukraine by Russia, and al Qaeda’s…

[munove]

La Peste Negra; la pandemia más letal de todos los tiempos

La Peste Negra asoló Europa entre los años 1347 y 1400. Conocida como peste bubónica, su nombre se debía a la presentación clínica mas común de la enfermedad caracterizada por la presencia de bubones, los cuales son pústulas de sangre y pus que se originan en los ganglios linfáticos de los pacientes infectados. Generalmente después de presentar la infección, la persona moría en un plazo de 24 horas. En la época medieval se desconocía a qué se debía la existencia de la peste, sus causas o como era transmitida.

etiquetas: peste, negra, europa, medievo, nostradamus, ratas, pulgas, yersina, pestis

» noticia original (steemit.com)

[dlosadar]

China emite advertencia de epidemia de peste bubónica después de que el pastor atrapa la 'peste negra' que acabó con el 60% de Europa

Los jefes de SALUD en China emitieron una alerta temprana de epidemia después de un caso confirmado de peste bubónica.

Se teme que la epidemia localizada se intensifique mientras el país aún lucha contra el coronavirus.

6 6

Los jefes de salud están ocupados vacunando a cualquiera que entre en contacto con dos pacientes con peste en MongoliaCrédito: sayan tv

6 6

La advertencia sanitaria prohíbe el consumo de animales y se invita al público a denunciar casos sospechosos. Crédito: MN news

6 6

Sin embargo, los expertos dicen que no hay forma de que la peste bubónica se dispare en una pandemia global, como Covid-19.

En declaraciones a Healthline, el Dr. Shanti Kappagoda, médico especialista en enfermedades infecciosas en Stanford Health Care, dijo: "A diferencia del siglo XIV, ahora entendemos cómo se propaga esta enfermedad.

"Sabemos cómo prevenirlo. También podemos tratar a pacientes infectados con antibióticos efectivos".

Los informes locales indican que la víctima de la peste es un pastor de la ciudad de Bayan Nur, en la Región Autónoma de Mongolia Interior, en el norte de China.

Se emitió una advertencia de tercer nivel, que prohíbe la caza y el consumo de animales que puedan portar la peste.

También se invitó al público a denunciar cualquier caso sospechoso de peste o fiebre sin una causa clara, y denunciar cualquier marmota enferma o muerta que pueda propagar la enfermedad.

También hubo una nueva alerta de peste en la vecina provincia de Bayan-Ulgii en Mongolia, que comparte frontera con Rusia y China.

Y un residente de Ulaankhus soum de 15 años, también en Mongolia, fue llevado al hospital local el domingo con fiebre alta después de comer una marmota cazada por un perro.

En el siglo XIV, la muerte negra, una colección de plagas, incluida la peste bubónica, cruzó el mundo, convirtiéndola en la pandemia más mortal registrada en la historia.

Ha matado a 200 millones de personas en África, Asia y Europa, eliminando al 60% de la población europea.

La enfermedad medieval es fácilmente tratable con la medicina moderna, pero si no se trata, la mayoría de las personas morirán en una semana.

Un video de Mongolia muestra cómo cientos de personas fueron vacunadas después de entrar en contacto directo o indirecto con los hermanos.

Hasta ahora, no hay otros casos conocidos de esta epidemia, pero los responsables permanecen en alerta.

La peste bubónica, conocida como "peste negra" en la Edad Media, es una enfermedad altamente infecciosa y a menudo mortal que se transmite principalmente por los roedores.

Historia de la peste negra

La Peste Negra fue una epidemia de peste bubónica que golpeó a Europa y Asia en la década de 1300.

Mató a más de 20 millones de personas en Europa, casi un tercio de la población del continente entre 1347-1352

Los científicos ahora saben que la plaga se propagó por un bacilo llamado yersina pestis.

Las bacterias pueden viajar por el aire y por las picaduras de pulgas y ratas infectadas.

La peste bubónica puede causar hinchazón de las notas linfáticas. Si no se trata, puede extenderse a la sangre y los pulmones.

Otros síntomas incluyen fiebre, vómitos y escalofríos.

Algunos creían que la peste negra era un "castigo divino", una forma de retribución por los pecados contra Dios.

Los médicos se han basado en tratamientos como la ebullición automática para bañarse en vinagre al tratar de tratar a las personas con peste.

Exclusivo

DUQUESA DEL DESPERTAR

El mejor amigo de Meghan está molesto después de ser 'abandonado' por 'despertó a la realeza' en la línea de carrera

Exclusivo

END EX SHOT

El ex golpe de estado de Gillian Taylforth luego de que mafiosos amenazaron con incendiar la casa

MOVIENDO EN LA PRISIÓN

Maxwell llega a Nueva York para ser juzgado luego de que la fuente dijera que « nada le puede pasar ''.

PURA MALDAD

Su esposo fue llamado « el diablo '' & # 39; & # 39; en una doble vida violando a un bebé por patear vendedores ambulantes

"CASA FANTASMA DEL SUSSEX"

Misterio de la mansión abandonada de 40 millones de libras más grande que el Palacio de Buckingham

Último

MUERTE LENTA

No hay nuevas muertes de corona en Londres, Escocia, Gales o Irlanda del Norte durante 24 horas.

Se caracteriza por síntomas similares a la gripe y la aparición de bubones, ronchas elevadas y supurantes en el cuello, la ingle y las axilas.

Los casos de peste no son infrecuentes en China, pero los brotes se han vuelto cada vez más raros.

De 2009 a 2018, China reportó 26 casos y 11 muertes.

6 6

Se emitió una advertencia de tercer nivel después de la epidemia en MongoliaCrédito: East2west News

6 6

La epidemia ha sido confirmada en la ciudad de Bayan Nur, Mongolia.Crédito: Alamy

6 6

El consumo de marmotas, en la foto, estaba prohibidoCrédito: East2west News

La policía persigue al terrorista bromista Norwich disfrazado de médico de la peste del siglo XVII durante una pandemia de coronavirus

Exclusivo

DUQUESA DEL DESPERTAR

El mejor amigo de Meghan está molesto después de ser 'abandonado' por 'despertó a la realeza' en la línea de carrera

Exclusivo

END EX SHOT

El ex golpe de estado de Gillian Taylforth luego de que mafiosos amenazaron con incendiar la casa

MOVIENDO EN LA PRISIÓN

Maxwell llega a Nueva York para ser juzgado luego de que la fuente dijera que « nada le puede pasar ''.

PURA MALDAD

Su esposo fue llamado « el diablo '' & # 39; & # 39; en una doble vida violando a un bebé por patear vendedores ambulantes

"CASA FANTASMA DEL SUSSEX"

Misterio de la mansión abandonada de 40 millones de libras más grande que el Palacio de Buckingham

Último

MUERTE LENTA

No hay nuevas muertes de corona en Londres, Escocia, Gales o Irlanda del Norte durante 24 horas.

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[sejarahduniamyth]

Sejarah Wabah Black Death yang Memakan Jutaan Korban Jiwa di Eropa & Asia

The Black Death adalah epidemi global yang menghancurkan wabah pes yang melanda Eropa dan Asia pada pertengahan 1300-an. Tulah itu tiba di Eropa pada Oktober 1347, ketika 12 kapal dari Laut Hitam merapat di pelabuhan Sisilia di Messina. Orang-orang yang berkumpul di dermaga disambut dengan kejutan yang mengerikan: Sebagian besar pelaut di atas kapal tewas, dan mereka yang masih hidup sakit parah dan ditutupi oleh bisul hitam yang mengalirkan darah dan nanah. Pihak berwenang Sisilia dengan tergesa-gesa memerintahkan armada "kapal-kapal kematian" keluar dari pelabuhan, tetapi sudah terlambat: Selama lima tahun berikutnya, Kematian Hitam akan membunuh lebih dari 20 juta orang di Eropa — hampir sepertiga dari populasi benua itu. .

Bagaimana Black Plague Mulai?

Bahkan sebelum "kapal-kapal kematian" masuk ke pelabuhan di Messina, banyak orang Eropa telah mendengar desas-desus tentang "Wabah Besar" yang mengukir jalur maut melintasi rute perdagangan Timur Dekat dan Timur Jauh. Memang, pada awal 1340-an, penyakit itu telah melanda Cina, India, Persia, Suriah dan Mesir Tulah itu diperkirakan berasal di Asia lebih dari 2.000 tahun yang lalu dan kemungkinan menyebar oleh kapal-kapal dagang, meskipun penelitian terbaru menunjukkan patogen yang bertanggung jawab atas Kematian Hitam mungkin telah ada di Eropa sedini 3000 SM

Gejala Wabah Hitam

Orang Eropa hampir tidak dilengkapi dengan realitas mengerikan dari Kematian Hitam. "Pada pria dan wanita," tulis penyair Italia Giovanni Boccaccio, "pada awal pembengkakan, pembengkakan tertentu, baik di pangkal paha atau di bawah ketiak ... menempel pada kebesaran apel biasa, yang lain seukuran dengan apel telur, beberapa lebih dan beberapa kurang, dan ini vulgar yang disebut wabah-bisul. "

Darah dan nanah merembes keluar dari pembengkakan aneh ini, yang diikuti oleh sejumlah gejala tidak menyenangkan lainnya — demam, kedinginan, muntah, diare, sakit dan nyeri yang hebat — dan kemudian, dalam waktu singkat, kematian.

Wabah Bubonic menyerang sistem limfatik, menyebabkan pembengkakan di kelenjar getah bening. Jika tidak diobati, infeksi dapat menyebar ke darah atau paru-paru.

Bagaimana Apakah Kematian Hitam Menyebar?

Kematian Hitam sangat menular, tanpa pandang bulu menular: "hanya menyentuh pakaian," tulis Boccaccio, "muncul dengan sendirinya untuk mengomunikasikan penyakit ke sentuhan." Penyakit itu juga sangat efisien. Orang-orang yang sangat sehat ketika mereka pergi tidur di malam hari bisa mati di pagi hari.

Memahami Black Death

Hari ini, para ilmuwan memahami bahwa Kematian Hitam, sekarang dikenal sebagai wabah, disebarkan oleh basil bernama Yersina pestis. (Ahli biologi Prancis Alexandre Yersin menemukan kuman ini pada akhir abad ke-19.)

Mereka tahu bahwa basil bergerak dari satu orang ke orang lain di udara, juga melalui gigitan kutu dan tikus yang terinfeksi. Kedua hama ini dapat ditemukan hampir di mana-mana di Eropa abad pertengahan, tetapi mereka secara khusus berada di rumah di atas semua jenis kapal — yang merupakan cara wabah mematikan melintasi kota pelabuhan Eropa satu demi satu

Tidak lama setelah itu menghantam Messina, Black Death menyebar ke pelabuhan Marseilles di Perancis dan pelabuhan Tunis di Afrika Utara. Kemudian mencapai Roma dan Florence, dua kota di pusat jaringan rute perdagangan yang rumit. Pada pertengahan 1348, Black Death telah melanda Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon dan London.

Saat ini, rangkaian peristiwa yang suram ini menakutkan tetapi dapat dipahami. Namun, di pertengahan abad ke-14, tampaknya tidak ada penjelasan rasional untuk WORLD WAR HISTORY.

Tidak ada yang tahu persis bagaimana Black Death ditransmisikan dari satu pasien ke pasien lain, dan tidak ada yang tahu bagaimana mencegah atau mengobatinya. Menurut seorang dokter, misalnya, "kematian seketika terjadi ketika roh udara keluar dari mata orang yang sakit menyerang orang sehat yang berdiri di dekat dan memandang orang sakit."

Bagaimana Anda Mengobati Kematian Hitam?

Dokter mengandalkan teknik kasar dan tidak canggih seperti pertumpahan darah dan perebusan mendidih (praktik yang berbahaya serta tidak sehat) dan praktik takhayul seperti membakar tanaman aromatik dan mandi di air mawar atau cuka.

Sementara itu, dalam kepanikan, orang sehat melakukan semua yang mereka bisa untuk menghindari orang sakit. Dokter menolak menemui pasien; para imam menolak untuk menyelenggarakan upacara terakhir; dan pemilik toko menutup toko mereka. Banyak orang melarikan diri dari kota ke pedesaan, tetapi bahkan di sana mereka tidak dapat melarikan diri dari penyakit: Penyakit ini menyerang sapi, domba, kambing, babi dan ayam serta manusia.

Faktanya, begitu banyak domba mati sehingga salah satu konsekuensi dari Kematian Hitam adalah kelangkaan wol Eropa. Dan banyak orang, putus asa untuk menyelamatkan diri mereka sendiri, bahkan meninggalkan orang yang mereka cintai yang sakit dan sekarat. “Melakukan hal itu,” tulis Boccaccio, “masing-masing berpikir untuk mendapatkan kekebalan bagi dirinya sendiri.”

Wabah Hitam: Hukuman Tuhan?

Karena mereka tidak memahami biologi penyakit ini, banyak orang percaya bahwa Kematian Hitam adalah semacam hukuman ilahi — pembalasan atas dosa-dosa terhadap Tuhan seperti keserakahan, penghujatan, bidat, percabulan dan keduniawian.

Beberapa orang menghadapi teror dan ketidakpastian epidemi Black Death dengan menyerang tetangga mereka; yang lain diatasi dengan menoleh ke dalam dan mengkhawatirkan kondisi jiwa mereka sendiri.

Flagellants

Beberapa lelaki kelas atas bergabung dengan prosesi flagellant yang melakukan perjalanan dari kota ke kota dan terlibat dalam pajangan penitensi dan hukuman di depan umum: Mereka akan saling memukuli diri sendiri dan satu sama lain dengan tali kulit tebal yang diikat dengan potongan logam tajam sementara penduduk kota memandanginya. Selama 33 ½ hari, para flageli mengulangi ritual ini tiga kali sehari. Kemudian mereka akan pindah ke kota berikutnya dan memulai prosesnya lagi

Meskipun gerakan flagellant memang memberikan kenyamanan bagi orang-orang yang merasa tidak berdaya dalam menghadapi tragedi yang tak dapat dijelaskan, ia segera mulai mengkhawatirkan Paus, yang wewenangnya mulai direbut oleh para flagellant. Dalam menghadapi perlawanan kepausan ini, gerakan itu hancur

Bagaimana Kematian Hitam Berakhir?

Tulah itu tidak pernah benar-benar berakhir dan kembali dengan pembalasan bertahun-tahun kemudian. Tetapi para pejabat di kota pelabuhan Ragusa yang dikontrol Venesia mampu memperlambat penyebarannya dengan menjaga pelaut yang tiba dalam isolasi sampai jelas mereka tidak membawa penyakit itu — menciptakan jarak sosial yang bergantung pada isolasi untuk memperlambat penyebaran penyakit.

Para pelaut awalnya ditahan di kapal mereka selama 30 hari (trentino), periode yang kemudian meningkat menjadi 40 hari, atau karantina — asal usul istilah “karantina” dan praktik yang masih digunakan sampai sekarang.

Apakah Wabah Hitam Masih Ada?

Epidemi Black Death telah mereda pada awal 1350-an, tetapi wabah itu muncul kembali setiap beberapa generasi selama berabad-abad. Sanitasi modern dan praktik kesehatan masyarakat telah sangat mengurangi dampak penyakit ini tetapi belum menghilangkannya. Sementara antibiotik tersedia untuk mengobati Black Death, menurut Organisasi Kesehatan Dunia, masih ada 1.000 hingga 3.000 kasus wabah setiap tahun.

[gwydionmisha]

I think about the Great Pestilence a lot these days.

My Tumblr follower count was 1361 on 6/18.  Fellow 14th century geeks and plague watchers will know that this is smack in the middle of the second great plague pandemic: aka the mortality of children, since a majority of second wave dead were under 20.  Extend a little imagination and empathy.  Picture the horror of that: A generation that saw 30-60% or the people they knew die a horrible, painful death; that were forced to bury their dead en mass with little or no chance to mourn, survives.  They knit society back together, they spend most of a decade having children and rebuilding farms and businesses in the aftermath.  Things are looking up, and Bam!  The next wave hits and their children and grandchildren start dying.

I think about the Great Pestilence a lot these days.  

Yersina pestis didn't just go away: It came back over and over in waves.  There was a major outbreak in India in the '90's and people die of it all over the world still, because you need treatment fairly quickly even with modern antibiotics, particularly with pneumonic and septicemic, and your first thought on getting a piercing headache or symptoms of a fever, even in a place where it's endemic like new Mexico, is not "I must have plague!  Better go to the hospital."  2018 was a really good year for the US with only one case and no deaths, but 4 people out of sixteen cases died in 2015, which was a bad year.  I don't have world figures at my finger tips, but people still die of it somewhere every year, and this is a bacteria where antibiotic treatment is effective and we know a fuck of a lot about it.  Just saying.  Go on tell the families of the people who died in the 1994 outbreak that the plague just went away after the first wave burnt out 'round about 1351.  It would certainly have been a surprise bit of news to the people dying of it in 1665, or 1361.

Just a thing to think about: how rare disease eradication is and how fucking heartbreaking a second wave can be.