causes of disease

• medieval

  • Poverty: caused unsanitary conditions which spread diseases. 
  • Warfare: dangerous + unhygienic conditions = spread of disease.
  • Famines: 1315-17, 10-15% of the population died. 
• medieval

  • The Black Death [14th century]

  → brought to England by Asian Black Rats, which snuck through by trade [ships], which infected fleas. The fleas spread the bubonic plague to people. Coughing spread the pnuemonic plague between the population, which had a 100% death rate.

  → 1348 - 49, killed 50-66% of england population killed.
• medieval

  → but medieval people thought TBD was caused by planetary movement, miasma, 4 humours, God and the supernatural and not living in close proximity. 

  → flagellants: people who whipped themselves to punish themselves before God could with the Black Death. 
• medieval

  CHANGE: no change throughout this period because beliefs were not based on scientific knowledge, but superstitions and fears.
• early modern

  • The Plague [17th Century]
  • 1664 - 65, 100,000 died in London, which was 25% of the population. 
  • What they thought caused the plague: bad smells, touch, supernatural. 
  • Plague doctors: wore beaked masks stuffed with sweet-smelling herbs, wore tick gloves and very thick waxed gowns. Wore amulets to ward off all spirits. 
• early modern

  • EYAM: villagers isolated themselves, figured out that the plague could spread through people, so they buried the dead quickly and burnt their clothes and possessions. 
• early modern

  CHANGE: some change, they developed a new cause: touch. Eyam is an example of change, as they isolated themselves to stop the spread as they knew that close proximity would spread the disease. 

  CONTINUITY: still believe in miasma. Eyam is only one small town - wasn’t effective over the country.
• modern

  • Industrialisation: significant change [bad change]

      - working conditions: phossy jaw, dangerous, long hours, chimney-sweeps = scrotal         cancer. The more labourers died, the more opportunity disease had to spread in overcrowded, dirty working conditions
• modern

  • living conditions: back-to-back, overcrowded, 1 family lived in a cellar, water supplied shared by many families, close proximity
  • poor sanitation: contaminated food and water, raw sewage in water, typhoid, cholera: 1831-32, 1848, 1854, 1866. Lack of cleanliness = washing hands + clothes with contaminated water. 57% of children died before 5. 
• modern

  • Spanish flu: 1918
  •   killed 20 - 40 million people worldwide. 
  • causes: german biological warfare + use of mustard gas
  • the war helped spread the flu = close proximity
  • brought in by birds from China [actual cause]
• modern

  • AIDS + HIV: 1981
  • closeness
  • killed many quickly
  • we have complex but expensive medication. 
  • countries started to control sexual behaviour and reduce cases. 
  • 2000 - 8 million people died
  • 2014 - 40 million had died and 40 million were living with the disease. 
  • HIV didn’t kill, but weakened the immune system, so other infections and flues killed the person. 
• modern

  CHANGE: dramatic change in the 19th century [horrible conditions], then the advancement of scientific knowledge in the 20th century, formed medication to treat diseases. 

  CONTINUITY: proximity.