BLACK DEATH

INDEXGeneral knowledge about Black Death........................................................1

Infected places....................................................................................2 , 3

Where it comes from......................................................................4

Symptoms..................................................................................5 , 6Consequences.......................................................................................7 , 8

Precautionary measure in the Middle Ages..................... ........................9, 10

Black DeathThis was one of the reasons of death during some centuries.It started in China in 1331 and then, it was spread across Europe. It finished in the 18th century.The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.The plagues did impact on religion, society and economy.The accepted theory about the origin of the plague explains that it was an outbreak caused by a variant of the bacterium Yersinia pestis.People thought that Jewish people were whose that caused the black death.

INFECTED PLACESFirst, it started in China, in central Asia, then it arrived to Europe. There were a lot of dead people in Europe. This photo explains all the trajectory of the Black Death and the dates.

INFECTED PLACES

There are differents theories about where the Black Death started. The most famous one says that it started in China, Mongolia,and especially in the province of Hunan.In 1330 the Black Death started spreading across Western China.Then the terrible march continue to Cyprus, Sicily and Italy (Winter 1347), Marseille (January 1348), Paris and the Netherlands in the summer of that year, by May 1349 Norway, Eastern Europe in 1350 and eventually Russia in 1351.It started to be one of the main fears of people in Europe, they triedto escape from their countries, but it didn't work.Black Death affected London so much.

WHERE IT COMES FROM

The man who practically live with them, had no idea at that time that rats and fleas that these loaded ,and that they could have something to do with the disease. The bacterium was called Yersinia Pestis.

This is the flea thattransmits YersiniaPestis.

SYMPTOMSAfter an incubation period of two to eight days, with fever, headache, chills and general impairment appears suddenly. After a few hours or days patients notice the presence of bubo, which is painful to the touch, 1 to 10 cm in diameter, which is usually located in the groin, armpit or neck areas and can sometimes ooze.

Bubo in groin

SYMPTOMSThere are symptoms of pneumonia too. The pneumonia progresses for 2 to 4 days and may cause respiratory failure and shock. Not be treated in time, the patient could die.Black Death was a contagious disease.The parts of the body that were touched by the black death turns to be black, or a bubo appears.

CONSEQUENCESIn Europe so many people died because of the plage, field labor decreased and as consequences the agricultural production went down, too.By lowering agricultural productivity population was weakened gradually reaching states of malnutrition and by this way the virus found the lowest defense systems in humans.

CONSEQUENCES

The sudden scarcity of cheap labor provided a strong incentive for innovation that helped to bring the end of the Middle Ages. Some people argue that it caused the Renaissance.The Black Death killed a third of Europe's population and repeated in successive waves until 1490, finally coming to kill about 25 million people. None of the subsequent events reached the severity of the epidemic of 1348.It did impact in religion and society too because people that that black death was Jewish people's fault.There were some wars too.

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Among the first measures used in Europe to prevent contagion was to burn infected clothes or refuse entry of shipments of tissues in cities. Even in some cities the traveler allowed entry only after having got rid of the clothes that brought put, exchanged for other "safe" loan from the city.They didn't have a lot of ways of how to prevent theBlack Death beacause in that times they were poor, and the knowledge wasn't like the knowledge ofnowadays.

DOCTORS OF THE BLACK DEATHThe beak is a primitive gas mask, stuffed with substances that make the plague go away, like perfumes, spices and herbs to purify or neutralizer "bad air". It performed a dual purpose, hides the cadaverous odor,to stop the possible rupture of the bubonic pustules. A common belief at the time was that the plague was spread by birds. So it was believed that wear a mask with beak could avert the terrible disease.

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