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The bubonic plague also known as the black plague was one of the fastest spreading and most deadly of disease. This plague was also referred to as the pneumonic plague or the blood spitting plague. A person infected with this disease would vomit blood for three days straight and then they would die. It was an extremely fast acting disease. I found a quote on the web site, "It was said that they would eat lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise. " The first documented signs of the plague were in China around 1347.
During this period of time, the most popular way to trade was by ship. In October 1347, some ships from Italy were in the harbor of China, by the time the ship reached home most of the crew were either dead or dying. The crew then exposed the port to this deadly plague. Traveling to the ports buy and sell goods would take several days as there were no cars yet so they had to walk or go by animal. The vendors that came to trade were then exposed to this plague and carried it back with them to the inner cities. Even though travel was slow this plague wiped out over 25, 000, 000 people within 5 years.
This was one third of Europe's population. Entire town and cities were completely wiped out. People traveling along the road would become infected and crawl off the side of the road to expire. Fleas off of rats carried this disease to humans. It was then transmitted though intercourse with someone that was infected with the plague. It became known as the Black Plague because the skin would became blotched with spots that became black.
The medical society never fully recovered from this plague. The disease was thought to be mystical. Many unorthodox practices were used to try to cure this disease. Everything was tied from praying to dancing.
Some to believed they worked because during the winter months it seemed to disappear. In the spring time it would run rapid again. The reason for this was that rats were less active in the winter and fleas are dormant. Many people would call on their religious leader for last confession, or what I like to call "death bed repentance. " The plague spread so much fear that soon the churches would no longer accept people with the plaque. The fear was so strong that even parents would refuse to care for their own children when the child became ill. No one dare enter a house where someone had died from the plague.
The houses would be left open and the valuables would remain untouched. Many of the wealthy people would pay servants enormous amounts of money to go and bury the bodies and take care of the dead. Soon there were no more servants and bodies were left untouched in houses, along streets and fields. This lead to another problem in itself, labor relations. The plague had caused such a shortage of labor that the few that were still healthy demanded more money for their labor, while the "management" refused to pay the inflated wage. The plague first stared in 1347 and did not disappear until the 1600 s.
The Black Plague was one of the deadliest diseases in history. It was fast acting fast spreading and little was known about the importance of personal hygiene. There was no cure for the plague. I feel that as knowledge of sanitation and personal hygiene increased the disease decreased.
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Research essay sample on Black Plague Personal Hygiene
