What was the plague, what were the symptoms?

Close to 25 million people died from the plague. There are three different kinds of the plague with their own different symptoms.  The Bubonic plague: MOST COMMON of all three, infection in the lymphatic system. The victims have swelling of their lymph nodes which is VERY painful for them (PLUS THE SWELLING COULD GET TO THE SIZE OF EGGS!). The victims with the disease had black spots on their skin, a fever, chills, headache, muscles aching, and high exhaustion. And with everything to that they also have a PUNGENTsmell. It usually took 2-7 days for a victim to die! The mortality rate for this plague was 50-90%.

The Pneumonic plague: infection in the respiratory system. The victims of the Pneumonic plague had coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath, and high, high fever. The victims had FEWER than 2 days to LIVE! The mortality rate of the plague was close to 100%.

The Septicemic Plague: The LEASTcommon plague, infection in the circulatory system. Includes SOME of the systems the Bubonic plague had included. The Septicemic Plague has MORE seizures and bleeding than others though. The victim has less than a day to survive the plague. The mortality rate for this plague is also 100%.

ALL of the plagues I have just talked about were CAUSED by the SAME bacteria. The bacteria lives in the bloodstream of rats and live in the fleas that are on the rats. Fleas can give the disease to other mammals and as you have learned, to humans.

How did the plague rise to disaster?

Why were the doctors letting the victims of the disease die?

        The surgeons were SURPRISED and caught off guard. They were panicky but their panic only made things WORSE. The only thing they thought of doing and what they thought they could do was warn the Europeans about the plague’s coming. The surgeons and doctors told the people to close and board up their windows and cover them with heavy curtains to keep the sickness in the air out. PLUS the European people had to STOP taking baths! They were told by the doctors that having their pores closed up would keep the sickness out of them.

NOBODY had known what to do; the disease came on so suddenly. I have learned that the rats with the fleas that carried the disease hid in sailors’ clothes while they sailed back across to Europe after trading. Then the sickness arose into the towns and cities and MILLIONS DIED.

How did the plague rise?

The plague came along at the time of 1348-1350. People lived PACKED together in cities, so ANY disease would’ve been able to spread VERY QUICKLY with DEADLY affects. Surgeons had no cure and the Black Death spread so RAPIDLY that it rose to DISASTER. The black rat carried the disease into Europe. It took over the European cities and surgeons and doctors had no idea what to do. The black rat carried the disease that came from fleas, onto trade ships.

The plague went ALL THE WAY UP AND THROUGH the Italian Peninsula, France, Rhineland, Central Europe, and then finally the British Isles. The plague died for a while in Scandinavia but came back later on. MILLIONS died from the harmful disease with dreadful affects and symptoms. It seemed to me to be a TERRIBLE and MISERABLE way to die.

What happened to the cities? what about the people who had caught the disease?

Cities became scarce, because the plague had wiped out almost all the people out! When the plague hit most people left town, others stayed in their houses with their windows boarded up. People were dying everywhere, and doctors were panicking not knowing what to do. For the cities it took almost a century for them to build it back together. People who caught this disease had a minimum amount of days to live, and horrible symptoms. It was a TERRIBLE way to die.

Later, since there was a terribly small amount of people in the cities, the plague died away…but only for a while. The disease was dormant so it came back but mostly in large cities. The plague showed up with one last HUGE outbreak which was called “The Great Plague”, this happened in the late medieval times and some but not a lot of the early modern times.

What was the conclusion of the plague?

By 1350, the plague had gone ALL THE WAY across Germany, Poland, and Scandinavia. The plague CAME AGAIN with SEVERITY ALL ACROSS the west and Medditeranean in 1348, 1362, 1383, 1389, and 1400. After the severe breaks of the plague, the disease became LESS EVENTFULand a LITTLE LESS INTENSE. The plague last appeared in England as the "Great Plague" in 1665.

The symptoms had changed due to the time, as the microbes had become to change and their resistance to humans increased. The populations that had been HIT by the plague didn't come back to newer levels until a LONG, LONG time after 1500 and some other populations didn't until the 19th century! But FINALLY the cities grew back together, FULLY.

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