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jacklynn jackson

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic - 4 views

virus.stanford.edu/uda

disease Death influenza History

shared by jacklynn jackson on 08 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • In the fall of 1918 the Great War in Europe was winding down and peace was on the horizon.
  • The Americans had joined in the fight, bringing the Allies closer to victory against the Germans. Deep within the trenches these men lived through some of the most brutal conditions of life, which it seemed could not be any worse. Then, in pockets across the globe, something erupted that seemed as benign as the common cold. The influenza of that season, however, was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected. The flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This pattern of morbidity was unusual for influenza which is usually a killer of the elderly and young children. It infected 28% of all Americans (Tice). An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic, ten times as many as in the world war. Of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy (Deseret News). An estimated 43,000 servicemen mobilized for WWI died of influenza (Crosby). 1918 would go down as unforgettable year of suffering and death and yet of peace. As noted in the Journal of the American Medical Association final edition of 1918:
  • The influenza pandemic circled the globe. Most of humanity felt the effects of this strain of the influenza virus. It spread following the path of its human car
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  • The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. The death rate for 15 to 34-year-olds of influenza and pneumonia were 20 times higher in 1918 than in previous years (Taubenberger). People were struck with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anectode shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza (Hoagg). Others told stories of people on their way to work suddenly developing the flu and dying within hours (Henig). One physician writes that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen" and later when cyanosis appeared in the patients, "it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate," (Grist, 1979). Another physician recalls that the influenza patients "died struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that sometimes gushed from their nose and mouth," (Starr, 1976). The physicians of the time were helpless against this powerful agent of influenza. In 1918 children would skip rope to the rhyme (Crawford):
  • The origins of this influenza variant is not precisely known. It is thought to have originated in China in a rare genetic shift of the influenza virus. The recombination of its surface proteins created a virus novel to almost everyone and a loss of herd immunity. Recently the virus has been reconstructed from the tissue of a dead soldier and is now being genetically characterized. The name of Spanish Flu came from the early affliction and large mortalities in Spain (BMJ,10/19/1918) where it allegedly killed 8 million in May (BMJ, 7/13/1918). However, a first wave of influenza appeared early in the spring of 1918 in Kansas and in military camps throughout the US. Few noticed the epidemic in the midst of the war. Wilson had just given his 14 point address. There was virtually no response or acknowledgment to the epidemics in March and April in the military camps. It was unfortunate that no steps were taken to prepare for the usual recrudescence of the virulent influenza strain in the winter. The lack of action was later criticized when the epidemic could not be ignored in the winter of 1918 (BMJ, 1918). These first epidemics at training camps were a sign of what was coming in greater magnitude in the fall and winter of 1918 to the entire world.
  • The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.
  • The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.
  • The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.
  • The war brought the virus back into the US for the second wave of the epidemic. It first arrived in Boston in September of 1918 through the port busy with war shipments of machinery and supplies. The war also enabled the virus to spread and diffuse. Men across the nation were mobilizing to join the military and the cause. As they came together, they brought the virus with them and to those they contacted. The virus killed almost 200,00 in October of 1918 alone. In November 11 of 1918 the end of the war enabled a resurgence. As people celebrated Armistice Day with parades and large partiess, a complete disaster from the public health standpoint, a rebirth of the epidemic occurred in some cities. The flu that winter was beyond imagination as millions were infected and thousands died. Just as the war had effected the course of influenza, influenza affected the war. Entire fleets were ill with the disease and men on the front were too sick to fight. The flu was devastating to both sides, killing more men than their own weapons could
  • The pandemic affected everyone. With one-quarter of the US and one-fifth of the world infected with the influenza, it was impossible to escape from the illness. Even President Woodrow Wilson suffered from the flu in early 1919 while negotiating the crucial treaty of Versailles to end the World War (Tice). Those who were lucky enough to avoid infection had to deal with the public health ordinances to restrain the spread of the disease. The public health departments distributed gauze masks to be worn in public. Stores could not hold sales, funerals were limited to 15 minutes. Some towns required a signed certificate to enter and railroads would not accept passengers without them. Those who ignored the flu ordinances had to pay steep fines enforced by extra officers (Deseret News). Bodies pilled up as the massive deaths of the epidemic ensued. Besides the lack of health care workers and medical supplies, there was a shortage of coffins, morticians and gravediggers (Knox). The conditions in 1918 were not so far removed from the Black Death in the era of the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages.
  • In 1918-19 this deadly influenza pandemic erupted during the final stages of World War I. Nations were already attempting to deal with the effects and costs of the war. Propaganda campaigns and war restrictions and rations had been implemented by governments. Nationalism pervaded as people accepted government authority. This allowed the public health departments to easily step in and implement their restrictive measures. The war also gave science greater importance as governments relied on scientists, now armed with the new germ theory and the development of antiseptic surgery, to design vaccines and reduce mortalities of disease and battle wounds. Their new technologies could preserve the men on the front and ultimately save the world. These conditions created by World War I, together with the current social attitudes and ideas, led to the relatively calm response of the public and application of scientific ideas. People allowed for strict measures and loss of freedom during the war as they submitted to the needs of the nation ahead of their personal needs. They had accepted the limitations placed with rationing and drafting. The responses of the public health officials reflected the new allegiance to science and the wartime society. The medical and scientific communities had developed new theories and applied them to prevention, diagnostics and treatment of the influenza patients.
  • The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351.
  • The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years.
  • "The 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all--infectious disease," (12/28/1918).
  • I had a little bird, Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza.
  • riers, along trade routes and shipping lines. Outbreaks swept through North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Brazil and the South Pacific (Taubenberger). In India the mortality rate was extremely high at around 50 deaths from influenza per 1,000 people (Brown).
  • With the military patients coming home from the war with battle wounds and mustard gas burns, hospital facilities and staff were taxed to the limit. This created a shortage of physicians, especially in the civilian sector as many had been lost for service with the military. Since the medical practitioners were away with the troops, only the medical students were left to care for the sick. Third and forth year classes were closed and the students assigned jobs as interns or nurses (Starr,1976). One article noted that "depletion has been carried to such an extent that the practitioners are brought very near the breaking point," (BMJ, 11/2/1918). The shortage was further confounded by the added loss of physicians to the epidemic. In the U.S., the Red Cross had to recruit more volunteers to contribute to the new cause at home of fighting the influenza epidemic. To respond with the fullest utilization of nurses, volunteers and medical supplies, the Red Cross created a National Committee on Influenza. It was involved in both military and civilian sectors to mobilize all forces to fight Spanish influenza (Crosby, 1989). In some areas of the US, the nursing shortage was so acute that the Red Cross had to ask local businesses to allow workers to have the day off if they volunteer in the hospitals at night (Deseret News). Emergency hospitals were created to take in the patients from the US and those arriving sick from overseas.
  • cord smith on 16 Apr 14
     
    the influenza
  • Cassie Russell on 21 Apr 14
     
    influenza facts  
jacob fulfer

The Black Death: Bubonic Plague - 4 views

www.themiddleages.net/plague.html

plague blackdeath disease bubonic black death Death medieval

shared by jacob fulfer on 16 Apr 14 - Cached
  • The Black Death: Bubonic Plague In the early 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China. The bubonic plague mainly affects rodents, but fleas can transmit the disease to people. Once people are infected, they infect others very rapidly. Plague causes fever and a painful swelling of the lymph glands called buboes, which is how it gets its name. The disease also causes spots on the skin that are red at first and then turn black.
  • Since China was one of the busiest of the world's trading nations, it was only a matter of time before the outbreak of plague in China spread to western Asia and Europe. In October of 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea, one of the key links in trade with China. When the ships docked in Sicily, many of those on board were already dying of plague. Within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding countryside.
  • An eyewitness tells what happened:
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  • "Realizing what a deadly disaster had come to them, the people quickly drove the Italians from their city. But the disease remained, and soon death was everywhere. Fathers abandoned their sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying. Friars and nuns were left to care for the sick, and monasteries and convents were soon deserted, as they were stricken, too. Bodies were left in empty houses, and there was no one to give them a Christian burial."
  • By the following August, the plague had spread as far north as England, where people called it "The Black Death" because of the black spots it produced on the skin. A terrible killer was loose across Europe, and Medieval medicine had nothing to combat it.
  • In winter the disease seemed to disappear, but only because fleas--which were now helping to carry it from person to person--are dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims. After five years 25 million people were dead--one-third of Europe's people.
  • Even when the worst was over, smaller outbreaks continued, not just for years, but for centuries. The survivors lived in constant fear of the plague's return, and the disease did not disappear until the 1600s
  • Medieval society never recovered from the results of the plague. So many people had died that there were serious labor shortages all over Europe. This led workers to demand higher wages, but landlords refused those demands. By the end of the 1300s peasant revolts broke out in England, France, Belgium and Italy.
  • 25 million people died in just under five years between 1347 and 1352. Estimated population of Europe from 1000 to 1352. 1000 38 million 1100 48 million 1200 59 million 1300 70 million 1347 75 million 1352 50 million
  • Alex Medrano on 21 Apr 14
     
    how it started and how many people died
jacob fulfer

Black Death -- Britannica School - 1 views

school.eb.com/...574643

death Disease plague

shared by jacob fulfer on 16 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Between 1347 and 1351 a great epidemic known as the Black Death ravaged Europe. This pandemic took a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time. The Black Death is widely believed to have been the result of plague that was caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Most scientists think that this bacterium was passed from infected rodents to humans through the bite of fleas.
  • Plague is an infectious fever that takes three forms in humans: bubonic; pneumonic, and septicemic. The bubonic type is the mildest, accounting today for virtually no deaths and in the past killing about half of its victims. It is named for one of the disease’s characteristics, the formation of buboes, or inflamed lymph glands. Pneumonic plague attacks the lungs and is often fatal in three or four days without treatment. In septicemic plague, bacteria overwhelm the bloodstream and often cause death within 24 hours, before other symptoms have a chance to develop. It is believed that the Black Death was a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plague. The pandemic was called the Black Death because of the black spots that appeared on the skin of many victims.
  • Dylan Hicks on 16 Apr 14
     
    Plague is an infectious fever that takes three forms in humans: bubonic; pneumonic, and septicemic. The bubonic type is the mildest, accounting today for virtually no deaths and in the past killing about half of its victims.
  • jacob fulfer on 18 Apr 14
     
    explains all about the black plague
a-a-ron butler

Epidemics of the Past: Bubonic Plague | FactMonster.com - 1 views

www.factmonster.com/...bubonic-plague.html

Death

shared by a-a-ron butler on 18 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Ring around the rosy, A pocket full of posies, Ashes … ashes, We all fall down.
  • A familiar nursery rhyme that children have recited as a harmless play song for generations
  • ironically refers to one of Europe's most devastating diseases. The bubonic plague, better known as the “The Black Death,” has existed for thousands of years. The first recorded case of the plague was in China in 224 B.C.E. But the most significant outbreak was in Europe in the mid-fourteenth century. Over a five-year period from 1347 to 1352, 25 million people died. One-third to one-half of the European population was wiped out!
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  • infection: fever, headache, and a general feeling of weakness, followed by aches in the upper leg and groin, a white tongue, rapid pulse, slurred speech, confusion, and fatigue
  • first symptoms
  • painful swelling of the lymph glands in the neck, armpits, and groin occurred, and these enlarged areas were called “buboes.” Bleeding under the skin followed, causing purplish blotches. Dark-ringed red spots on the skin from infected fleabites, or “ring around the rosy,” eventually turned black, producing putrid-smelling lesions
  • skin blackene
  • inspiration for “Dance of Death” rituals
  • nervous system collapsed, causing extreme pain and bizarre neurological disorders
  • Once infected, people can infect others by coughing, sneezing, or close talking
  • “pocket full of posies,” that people carried with them and held near their faces to ward off the horrid odor
  • uncharacteristically cremated—the “ashes, ashes,”—and finally, death would come, and we would “all fall down.”
  • Fleas feeding on infected rodents can transmit the disease to people as well
  • the skin blackened, giving rise to “The Black Death.
  • The origin of “The Black Death” dates to an outbreak in China during the 1330s
  • Unlike smallpox, the plague is still a threat in some parts of the world. Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, is transmitted through rat-tainted fleabites in densely populated cities and in countries with poor hygiene, or in the open country from infected wild rodents. The most common form of human plague is a swollen and painful lymph gland that forms buboes.
  • Pneumonic plague is more difficult to treat, and even with antibiotics, victims can die from it. Pneumonic plague occurs when the infectious bacteria infects the lungs. The first signs of illness in pneumonic plague are fever, headache, weakness, and a cough that produces blood or watery sputum. The pneumonia progresses over two to four days and, without early treatment, death ensues.
  • Plague vaccines have been used since the late nineteenth century, but their effectiveness is uncertain. Vaccination reduces the incidence and severity of disease resulting from the bite of infected fleas, but it isn't 100 percent effective. The plague vaccine is licensed for use in the United States and is available for adults at high risk—people who live in the western United States, people who will be in parts of the world where plague is still endemic, and people who are around rodents. Severe inflammatory reactions are common, and plague vaccine should not be given to anyone with a known hypersensitivity to beef protein, soya, casein, or phenol. Finally, the vaccination routine is complex and requires frequent boosters to maintain its effectiveness.
  • Bubonic Plague
Megan Sherwin

Bubonic plague - 0 views

io9.com/...-dying-from-the-bubonic-plague

shared by Megan Sherwin on 21 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • The city was ringing in the year 1900 and things looked bright. San Francisco was both a local hub of industry and a port to ships coming in from the far east. Each of those ships had to pass a health inspection before they docked, of course, but both the passengers and the local businesses pressured the health inspectors to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. They did this even after cases of plague, and mini-epidemics, broke out in China, and then in Hawaii. It was not a surprise to health officials when the first case of plague was reported in Chinatown, but they were surprised by the opposition they faced in even saying the word "plague." Over the next few years, state and local organizations worked against federal health officials, fearing that any reports of plague would damage trade and tourism. When the 1906 earthquake hit, and the rats took over the rubble of the city, the deaths came so fast and thick that there was no denying it anymore. Still, it took years of work before the plague was quelled. By that time, it had started showing up in local squirrels.
  • Bubonic plague is not a virus, but a bacterial infection. Yersinia pestis lives in fleas, which leave traces of it in the area that they bite. It works its way into the body and multiplies, traveling through the lymphatic system. The swellings that appear at the groin and under the armpits are the painfully swollen lymph nodes. Bubonic plague kills within four days, at which point the fleas desert the body and go to the next victim, taking their bacteria with them. An infected flea doesn't necessarily mean an infected host. Different fleas have different eating techniques, different hosts scratch (driving the bacteria into the wound) or don't scratch, and not all hosts act as ideal carriers for the bacteria. But plague in the wildlife won't stay in the wildlife for long.
    • Megan Sherwin
      Megan Sherwin on 21 Apr 14
       
      This site does not talk about the Black Death, but it tells of another time the bubonic plague hit humans.
Megan Sherwin

Bubonic Plague - Information About Bubonic Plague - 0 views

rarediseases.about.com/...111602.htm

shared by Megan Sherwin on 16 Apr 14 - Cached
  • Megan Sherwin on 16 Apr 14
     
    Bubonic plague is not usually spread from person to person. Small rodents, such as rats, mice and squirrels, carry the infection. Fleas that live on these animals act as "vectors" and carry the infection from the rodent to humans. People may get exposed to the bacteria from flea bites or from direct contact with an infected animal. During the "Black Death," many people became sick with pneumonia from Yersinia pestis (called "pneumonic plague") and spread the disease bacteria to each other by coughing and sneezing.
Jacob Morrison

Plague, Plague Information, Black Death Facts, News, Photos -- National Geographic - 2 views

science.nationalgeographic.com/...plague-article

Black Death

shared by Jacob Morrison on 16 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Plague is a bacterial infection found mainly in rodents and their fleas. But via those fleas it can sometimes leap to humans. When it does, the outcome can be horrific, making plague outbreaks the most notorious disease episodes in history.Most infamous of all was the Black Death, a medieval pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe. It reached Europe in the late 1340s, killing an estimated 25 million people. The Black Death lingered on for centuries, particularly in cities. Outbreaks included the Great Plague of London (1665-66), in which one in five residents died.
  • Plague is a bacterial infection found mainly in ro
  • Death
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  • Bubonic plague, the disease's most common form, refers to telltale buboes—painfully swollen lymph nodes—that appear around the groin, armpit, or neck. Septicemic plague, which spreads in the bloodstream, comes either via fleas or from contact with plague-infected body matter. Pneumonic plague, the most infectious type, is an advanced stage of bubonic plague when the disease starts being passed directly, person to person, through airborne droplets coughed from the lungs. If left untreated, bubonic plague kills about 50 percent of those it infects. The other two forms are almost invariably fatal without antibiotics.Yersinia pestis is extraordinarily virulent, even when compared with closely related bacteria. This is because it's a mutant variety, handicapped both by not being able to survive outside the animals it infects and by an inability to penetrate and hide in its host's body cells. To compensate, Y. pestis needs strength in numbers and the ability to disable its victim's immune system. It does this by injecting toxins into defense cells such as macrophages that are tasked with detecting bacterial infections. Once these cells are knocked out, the bacteria can multiply unhindered.Victims are so overwhelmed that they're more or less poisoned to death as the bacilli gather in thick clots under the skin, where a passing flea might pick them up. Other grim side effects can include gangrene, erupting pus-filled glands, and lungs that literally dissolve.
  • Plague still exists in various parts of the world. In 2003, more than 2,100 human cases and 180 deaths were recorded, nearly all of them in Africa. The last reported serious outbreak was in 2006 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa, when at least 50 people died. The United States, China, India, Vietnam, and Mongolia are among the other countries that have confirmed human plague cases in recent years.Most people survive if they're given the correct antibiotics in time. Good sanitation and pest control help prevent plague outbreaks since they need crowded, dirty, rat-infested conditions to really get going.There are fears that plague bacteria possibly could be used for a bioterror attack if released in aerosol form.
  • Alex Medrano on 21 Apr 14
     
    national geographic what the plague is
Dylan Hicks

The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever | History Today - 0 views

www.historytoday.com/...eath-greatest-catastrophe-ever

death

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  • The disastrous mortal disease known as the Black Death spread across Europe in the years 1346-53. The frightening name, however, only came several centuries after its visitation (and was probably a mistranslation of the Latin word ‘atra’ meaning both ‘terrible’ and ‘black)’. Chronicles and letters from the time describe the terror wrought by the illness. In Florence, the great Renaissance poet Petrarch was sure that they would not be believed: ‘O happy posterity, who will not experience such abysmal woe and will look upon our testimony as a fable.’
  • The tragedy was extraordinary. In the course of just a few months, 60 per cent of Florence’s population died from the plague, and probably the same proportion in Siena. In addition to the bald statistics, we come across profound personal tragedies: Petrarch lost to the Black Death his beloved Laura to whom he wrote his famous love poems; Di Tura tells us that ‘I [...] buried my five children with my own hands
  • The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague, a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that circulates among wild rodents where they live in great numbers and density. Such an area is called a ‘plague focus’ or a ‘plague reservoir’. Plague among humans  arises when rodents in human habitation, normally black rats, become infected. The black rat, also called the ‘house rat’ and the ‘ship rat’, likes to live close to people, the very quality that makes it dangerous (in contrast, the brown or grey rat prefers to keep its distance in sewers and cellars). Normally, it takes ten to fourteen days before plague has killed off most of a contaminated rat colony, making it difficult for great numbers of fleas gathered on the remaining, but soon- dying, rats to find new hosts. After three days of fasting, hungry rat fleas turn on humans. From the bite site, the contagion drains to a lymph node that consequently swells to form a painful bubo, most often in the groin, on the thigh, in an armpit or on the neck. Hence the name bubonic plague. The infection takes three–five days to incubate in people before they fall ill, and another three–five days before, in 80 per cent of the cases, the victims die. Thus, from the introduction of plague contagion among rats in a human community it takes, on average, twenty-three days before the first person dies.
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  • When, for instance, a stranger called Andrew Hogson died from plague on his arrival in Penrith in 1597, and the next plague case followed twenty-two days later, this corresponded to the first phase of the development of an epidemic of bubonic plague. And Hobson was, of course, not the only fugitive from a plague-stricken town or area arriving in various communities in the region with infective rat fleas in their clothing or luggage. This pattern of spread is called ‘spread by leaps’ or ‘metastatic spread’. Thus, plague soon broke out in other urban and rural centres, from where the disease spread into the villages and townships of the surrounding districts by a similar process of leaps.
a-a-ron butler

The Black Death - 0 views

academic.mu.edu/...plague.htm

death history

shared by a-a-ron butler on 21 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • during the High Middle Ages (1000-1300)
  • Waste accumulated in the streets for lack of sewer systems
  • traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320s.
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  • was the spread eastward to China
  • the traders carried the bacterium yersinia pestis in the rats on board as well as in some of the sailors themselves. The Black Death had arrived in Europe.
  • Once the flea bites a human, infected blood from the rat is introduced to the healthy blood of the human, and the bacteria spreads. Death occurs in less than a week for humans. A high fever, aching limbs, and fatigue mark the early stages of infection. Eventually, the lymph nodes of the neck, groin, and armpit areas swell and turn black. Those black swellings on victims are what give the Black Death its name. The victim begins to vomit blood and in some instances suffer hysteria from fever and terror. Exposure to any body fluids means exposure to the bacterium, and thus spreading the disease is very easy through coughing victims. The victim dies shortly after the lymph nodes swell until bursting within the body.
  • As winter approached, colder temperatures killed fleas and caused rats to seek dormancy
  • disease was not gone, it was simply dormant for a few month
  • bubonic plague is actually the weakest strain of known plagues.
  • Black Death was solely caused by the bubonic strain of plague has been questioned
  • which infects the respiratory system
  • other two strains are the septicaemic plague, which infects the circulatory system in victims, and the pneumonic plague
  • Black Death killed virtually all infected people raises doub
  • bubonic plague is not as fatal compared to the other two strains (which have mortality rates close to 100%)
  • the site of the first plague cases in Italy, Messina:
  • Soon the boils grew to the size of a walnut, then to that of a hen's egg or a goose's egg,
  • There was not nearly enough consecrated ground for each victim to have an individual plot, and so enormous trenches were dug into which layer upon layer of dead bodies were lain. The trench was topped off with a small layer of soil,
  • Pope Clement VI even consecrated the entire Rhone river so that corpses could be thrown into it for lack of earth.
  • people, and considered it to be a punishment from an angry God. Some peasants resorted to magic spells, charms, and talismans.
  • Some people burned incense or other herbs as they believed that they overpowering smell of the dead victims was the source of the disease.
  • Some people even tried to "drive the disease away" with sound from church bells and canon fire
  • Churchmen, and public officials considered the disease to be just that; a disease.
a-a-ron butler

Plague - Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment of Plague - NY Times Health Information - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...overview.html

black death

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  • Plague is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. Rodents, such as rats, carry the disease. It is spread by their fleas.
  • People can get the plague when they are bitten by a flea that carries the plague bacteria from an infected rodent. In rare cases, you may get the disease when handling an infected animal.
  • plague lung infection called pneumonic plague can spread from human to human
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  • Today, plague is rare in the United States, but it has been known to occur in parts of California, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico
  • in Europe, massive plague epidemics killed millions of people. Plague can still be found in Africa, Asia, and South America.
  • someone with pneumonic plague coughs, tiny droplets carrying the bacteria move through the air. Anyone who breathes in these particles may catch the disease. An epidemic may be started this way.
  • Pneumonic plague symptoms appear suddenly, typically 2 - 3 days after exposure. They include: Cough Difficulty breathing Fever Frothy, bloody sputum Pain in the chest when you breathe deeply Severe cough Septicemic plague may cause death even before its symptoms occur. Symptoms can include: Abdominal pain Bleeding due to blood clotting problems Diarrhea Fever Nausea Vomiting
  • Bubonic plague symptoms appear suddenly, usually after 2 - 5 days of exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms include: Chills Fever General ill feeling (malaise) Headache Muscle pain Seizures Smooth, painful lymph gland swelling called a bubo Commonly found in the groin, but may occur in the armpits or neck, most often at the site of the infection (bite or scratch) Pain may occur in the area before the swelling appears
  • Bubonic plague -- an infection of the lymph nodes Pneumonic plague -- an infection of the lungs Septicemic plague -- an infection of the blood
  • Tests that may be done include:
  • Blood culture Culture of lymph node aspirate (fluid taken from an affected lymph node or bubo) Sputum culture
  • People with the plague need immediate treatment. If treatment is not received within 24 hours of when the first symptoms occur, death may occur.
  • Antibiotics such as streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline, or ciprofloxacin are used to treat plague
  • Oxygen, intravenous fluids, and respiratory support usually are also needed.
  • Patients with pneumonic plague should be strictly isolated from caregivers and other patients. People who have had contact with anyone infected by pneumonic plague should be watched carefully and given antibiotics as a preventive measure.
  • Without treatment, about 50% of people with bubonic plague die. Almost all people with pneumonic plague die if not treated. Treatment reduces the death rate to 50%
  • Rat control and watching for the disease in the wild rodent population are the main measures used to control the risk of epidemics. A vaccination is available for high-risk workers, but its effectiveness is not clearly established
Dylan Hicks

Web Sites about "black plague" - 0 views

destiny.celesteisd.org/...entwebpathsearchresultsform.do

black death

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  • The Great Plague, also known as the Black Death or bubonic plague, is the topic of discussion in this report. More terrible than the previous outbreaks of plague in London, the Great Plague started in the poorest areas of London and this report provides you with the details on how it was transmitted and spread. Information on the treatment of plague victims demonstrates the misinformation about the plague that existed during the seventeenth century. The symptoms of the plague are described is provided along with excerpts from the diary of Samuel Pepys.
  • Sixty percent of Europe's population died in the Black Death, a spread of bubonic plague in the mid-14th century. Deep pits were dug at all the church cemeteries, and each held many bodies with a layer of dirt added each day. Letters and chronicles tell of the personal tragedies of those who buried spouses or children. The disease was spread by rats that lived in houses and on ships. Infected fleas bit humans after the rats in a colony died. In a few days, victims fell ill. In a few more, 80% of them died. Investigate the spread.
Dylan Hicks

The Black Death - What You Need to Know About the Plague of the 14th Century - 1 views

historymedren.about.com/...blackdeath.htm

black death

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  • What the Black Death Was When historians refer to "The Black Death," they mean the specific outbreak of plague that took place in Europe in the mid-14th century. The Black Death came to Europe in October of 1347, spread swiftly through most of Europe by the end of 1349 and on to Scandinavia and Russia in the 1350s. It returned several times throughout the rest of the century.
  • Traditionally, the disease that most scholars believe struck Europe was "Plague." Best known as bubonic plague for the "buboes" (lumps) that formed on the victims' bodies, Plague also took pneumonic and septicemic forms. Other diseases have been postulated by scientists, and some scholars believe that there was a pandemic of several diseases; but currently the theory of Plague (in all its varieties) still holds among most historians.
  • Where the Black Death Started Thus far, no one has been able to identify the point of origin of the Black Death with any precision. It started somewhere in Asia, possibly in China, possibly at Lake Issyk-Kul in central Asia.
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  • How the Black Death Spread Bubonic Plague was spread by the fleas who lived on plague-infected rats, and such rats were ubiquitous on trading ships. Pneumonic Plague could spread with a sneeze and jump from person to person with terrifying speed. Septicemic Plague spread through contact with open sores. Through these methods of con
  • tagion, the Black Death spread via trade routes from Asia to Italy, and thence throughout Europe.
  • Death Tolls It is estimated that approximately 20 million people died in Europe from the Black Death. This is about one-third of the population. Many cities lost more than 40% of their residents, Paris lost half, and Venice, Hamburg and Bremen are estimated to have lost at least 60% of their populations.
  • What Medieval People Believed Caused the Plague The most common assumption was that God was punishing mankind for its sins. There were also those who believed in demonic dogs, and in Scandinavia, the superstition of the Pest Maiden was popular. Some people accused the Jews of poisoning wells; the result was a horrific persecution of Jews that the papacy was hard-put to stop. Scholars attempted a more scientific view, but they were hampered by the fact that the microscope wouldn't be invented for several centuries. The University of Paris conducted a study, the Paris Consilium, which, after serious investigation, ascribed the plague to a combination of earthquakes and astrological forces.
  • How People Reacted to the Black Death Fear and hysteria were the most common reactions. People fled the cities in panic, abandoning their families. Noble acts by doctors and priests were overshadowed by those who refused to treat their patients or give last rites to plague victims. Convinced the end was near, some sank into wild debauchery; others prayed for salvation. Flagellants went from one town to another, parading through the streets and whipping themselves to demonstrate their penitence.
Megan Sherwin

A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Bubonic plague hits San Francisco - 0 views

www.pbs.org/...dm00bu.html

shared by Megan Sherwin on 21 Apr 14 - No Cached
    • Megan Sherwin
      Megan Sherwin on 21 Apr 14
       
      This site also tells of a time when the bubonic plague hit San Francisco.
Megan Sherwin

Black Death the cause for fall of Roman Empire - 0 views

web.a.ebscohost.com/...detail

shared by Megan Sherwin on 17 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague
  • Y. pestis is also blamed for the Black Death that struck Europe in the 1340s, and was found on Londoners who succumbed to that plague.
  • Megan Sherwin on 17 Apr 14
     
    Y-pestis causes Black Death
Megan Sherwin

The Black Death - 0 views

www.mrdowling.com/703-plague.html

bubonic

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  • A Great Plague killed nearly half of the people of Europe during in the fourteenth century. A plague is a widespread illness. The plague was also known as "the Black Death" because of the black spots that formed on the skin of diseased people. The devastation of the plague brought great changes to Europe.
  • The sickness apparently began in Central Asia. In 1347, Italian merchant ships returned from the Black Sea, one of the links along the trade route between Europe and China. The ships were dirty and infested with rats. Fleas living on the blood of infected rats transferred the disease to the seamen.
  • Many of the sailors were already dying of the plague as the infected ships returned to port, and within days of an infected ship's arrival, the disease spread from the port cities to the surrounding countryside. The plague reached Spain, France, England and Russia within three years. Although it is impossible to calculate exactly how many people died from the plague, evidence suggests that it claimed the lives of as many as 25 million Europeans.
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  • The Italian writer Boccaccio said victims often "ate lunch with their friends, and ate dinner with their ancestors in paradise."
  • The Europeans often ate stale or diseased meat because refrigeration had not yet been invented.
  • Europeans were susceptible to disease because many people lived in crowded surroundings in an era when personal hygiene was not considered important.
  • Cities began to build hospitals and enforce standards for sanitation.
  • The devastation of the plague led to advances in medicine.
  • People were advised to not bathe because open skin pores might let in the disease.
  • Some Europeans believed the plague was a sign from God. Groups known as flagellants tried to atone for the sins of the world by inflicting punishments upon themselves. The flagellants also had a tendency to persecute Jews and even clergymen who spoke out against them. Eccentric and unusual people were often charged with witchcraft and sorcery. Pope Clement VI condemned the flagellants, but they continued to reappear in times of plague.
    • Megan Sherwin
      Megan Sherwin on 21 Apr 14
       
      Neat site that gives a little more info on what people did who were convinced that the plague was from God.
Jacob Morrison

Debating Death and Disease: Student Research Center - powered by EBSCOhost - 0 views

web.b.ebscohost.com/...detail

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    • Jacob Morrison
      Jacob Morrison on 18 Apr 14
       
      Intriguingly, just as the Black Death had a significant impact on European society, so its study has had a major impact on medieval historiography, leading to a series of dramatic debates, in particular over the identity of the disease. The debate was largely sparked by Samuel Cohn, who threw doubt on the long-held belief that the cause of the Black Death was bubonic plague in The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe (2002). In 2010 DNA analysis by an international team of scientists identified Yersinia pestis, the pathogen responsible for plague, in medieval burial sites in five European countries (see the online article, S. Haensch, R. Bianucci, et al, 'Distinct clones of Yersinia pestis caused by the Black Death' These findings have now been absorbed by the historical community, as can be seen in articles in the recent volume edited by Linda Clark and Carole Radcliffe, 'Society in an Age of Plague' in The Fifteenth Century, XII (2013), but it has been questioned how far these very local findings can be generalized - and so the debate continues.
Jacob Morrison

The Black Death of 1348 to 1350 - 2 views

www.historylearningsite.co.uk/lack_death_of_1348_to_1350.htm

black death

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  • In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350. No medical knowledge existed in Medieval England to cope with the disease. After 1350, it was to strike England another six times by the end of the century. Understandably, peasants were terrified at the news that the Black Death might be approaching their village or town.
  • The Black Death is the name given to a deadly plague (often called bubonic plague, but is more likely to be pneumonic plague) which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. It was believed to have arrived from Asia in late 1348 and caused more than one epidemic in that century - though its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible. No amount of medical knowledge could help England when the plague struck. It was also to have a major impact on England’s social structure which lead to the Peasants Revolt of 1381.
  • Up until recently the Black Death was thought to have been caused by fleas carried by rats that were very common in towns and cities. When the fleas bit into their victims, it was thought they were literally injecting them with the disease.
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  • The Black Death had a huge impact on society.
  • Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.
  • Written evidence from the time indicates that nearly all the victims died within three days though a small number did last for four days.
  • Therefore whole villages would have faced starvation. Towns and cities would have faced food shortages as the villages that surrounded them could not provide them with enough food. Those lords who lost their manpower to the disease, turned to sheep farming as this required less people to work on the land. Grain farming became less popular – this, again, kept towns and cities short of such basics as bread. One consequence of the Black Death was inflation – the price of food went up creating more hardship for the poor. In some parts of England, food prices went up by four times.
  • Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.
  • Alex Medrano on 21 Apr 14
     
    the plague in England
Megan Sherwin

The Black Death - 0 views

www.wordfocus.com/word-black-death-pt1.html

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  • The Black Death – The name given to the plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. It is said to be the greatest catastrophe experienced by the western world up to that time.
  • The Black Death came in three forms: The bubonic. The pneumonic. The septicemic.
  • This particular plague of Black Death started in Italy
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • In the course of an attack on the Christians, the Tatars were stricken by plague. From sheer spitefulness, their leader loaded his catapults with dead bodies and hurled them at the Christian enemy, in hopes of spreading disease among them. Infected with the plague, the Genoese sailed back to Italy, docking first at Messina
  • From the shores of the Black Sea, the bacillus seems to have entered a number of Italian ports. The most famous account has to do with a ship that docked in the Sicilian port of Messina in 1347. According to an Italian chronicler named Gabriele de Mussis, Christian merchants from Genoa and local Muslim residents in the town of Caffa, on the Black Sea, got into an argument; a serious fight resulted between the merchants and a local army led by a Tatar lord.
    • Megan Sherwin
      Megan Sherwin on 21 Apr 14
       
      Very informative and helpful!
a-a-ron butler

People in the US Still Die from Black Death : Discovery News - 0 views

news.discovery.com/...ill-die-black-death-130125.htm

death history

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  • 're not kee
  • from what was once called the Black Death. Although we
  • The United States is one of the many countries around the world that technically still suffers from what was once called the Black Death
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • there are regular cases of bubonic plague that spring up every year in the American southwest
  • Occasionally, they lead to deaths
  • they lead to people scratching their heads as they read the newspaper and wondering aloud, "How do we still have the plague?
  • San Francisco was both a local hub of industry and a port to ships coming in from the far east. Each of those ships had to pass a health inspection before they docked, of course, but both the passengers and the local businesses pressured the health inspectors to get it out of the way as quickly as possible
  • They did this even after cases of plague, and mini-epidemics, broke out in China, and then in Hawaii.
Megan Sherwin

Black death skeletons - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...spread-rat-fleas-london-plague

shared by Megan Sherwin on 17 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • The Black Death arrived in Britain from central Asia in the autumn of 1348 and by late spring the following year it had killed six out of every 10 people in London. Such a rate of destruction would kill five million now. By extracting the DNA of the disease bacterium, Yersinia pestis, from the largest teeth in some of the skulls retrieved from the square, the scientists were able to compare the strain of bubonic plague preserved there with that which was recently responsible for killing 60 people in Madagascar. To their surprise, the 14th-century strain, the cause of the most lethal catastrophe in recorded history, was no more virulent than today's disease. The DNA codes were an almost perfect match.
  • Black death skeletons reveal pitiful life of 14th-century Londoners
  • found evidence of rickets, anaemia, bad teeth and childhood malnutrition.
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