black death

• Ships during the mid-1300s were commonly infested with rats who thrived in their dark, moist environment.
• Approximately 60% of the world's population was affected by the Black Death, which is significantly more than world-wide estimates typically range from 155 to 200 million.
• Many animals, including countryside livestock, serve as hosts for Yersina pestis and blood sucking pests.
• All strains of Yersina pestis, airborne or those in the initial stages that are not, are believed to have been transferred through flea or lice bites.
• The Black Death spread to other port locations throughout Europe and as far down as North Africa following the arrival of ships.
• When information was plugged into simulations, the human-flea model more closely matched data from seven of nine plague-hit European cities.
• The underlying mathematical model that a rat-flea spread follows is quite different from a human-flea or lice one.
• Blood sucking pests of one kind or another likely passed the Black Death on successfully and so very quickly.
• The Black Death spread quickly and wiped out large numbers of people and animals due to a lack of scientific knowledge in the 1300s.
• Many believe that in its later stages, Yersina pestis had the ability to morph into an airborne strain that could be passed on to a new host via a simple sneeze or cough.
• Some scientists suggest that human fleas and lice were the true culprits behind Europe’s version of the disease.
• In this case, fleas would bite infected people and then move on to others, one by one, who happened to be in the nearby vicinity.
• The Black Death is believed to have begun when rats with the plague died and their fleas then looked for more blood in a readily available source, which could sometimes be human.
• The world at the time of the Black Death had a population of 500 million people, meaning nearly half of all inhabitants were killed by the plague.
• Yersina pestis, the bacterium behind the Black Death or bubonic plague, is highly contagious and can be spread in many ways, including through contaminated spirits.
• Europe’s black death spread much faster and there was no mention of a mass rat die-off in the days or months preceding it.
• In October of 1347, 12 ships dropped anchor at a Sicilian port, carrying a deadly disease known as the bubonic plague.
• Those who approached the ships were met with a grisly sight, as almost all aboard were either dead or barely alive, their skin erupting with blackened boils that dripped blood and pus.
• The Sicilian authorities demanded the ships set sail, but the damage had already been done, as the Black Death was now in Europe and millions would die in what is considered one of the greatest disasters in history.
• The Black Death spread throughout Europe, killing around a third of the population.
• Europe was not the first area hit by the plague, as rumors of a frightful sickness devastating the populations of first China and then India, Egypt, Persia, and Syria had spread near and far.
• The Black Death followed trade routes spanning the Near and Far East, appearing unstoppable and seemingly following trade routes.
• These lumps would then fester and ooze various bodily fluids.
• Those with the disease could develop any combination of a series of additional symptoms including fever, pain, chills, sweating, upset stomach, and diarrhea.
• Almost always, the Black Death would follow brief physical contact with the clothing of someone who was sick, but some doctors claimed that it was the spirit leaving the body of the deceased that infected others as it passed by.
• The real methods of disease transmission were not well understood at the time, making it difficult for most to defend against the Black Death.
• Only 0.2% of the European population at the time had a gene that offered them any form of immunity to the plague.
• It is possible that anthrax and other diseases made people more susceptible to the plague due to compromised immunity.
• The treatment methods used for the Black Death, such as bloodletting and boil-lancing, were ineffective and may have contributed to the spread of the disease.
• Caucasian Americans now have a 15% chance of having some resistance to the plague due to the gene for immunity being passed on.
• Anthrax spores were discovered in mass graves in England along with the bodies of plague victims.
• The body count of those claimed by the Black Death may have included victims who actually died from anthrax or other diseases.
• Many doctors and priests stopped accepting patients or performing last rites out of fear for their own safety.
• Anthrax can be transmitted through contact with sweat, saliva, tears, or skin.
• The Black Death infiltrated virtually every European city’s defenses, leaving many who appeared perfectly healthy one day dead a few days later.
• Those with the disease would typically be asymptomatic for the first few days, making it difficult to isolate them from the rest of society.
• The Black Death decimated livestock as well, leading to a shortage of wool throughout the continent.
• While many European areas had a death figure of around 30%, 90% of the Italian city of Florence perished.
• In some instances, bodies of the deceased remained where they had died as there were not enough people still living to bury them.
• Thousands of French villages and areas in other locations were left without a single remaining soul.