Black Death
Also known as: Great Plague · Great Mortality · plague · Bubonic Plague · Great Pestilence
- 1The pandemic occurred between 1346 and 1353.
- 2The causative agent is the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
- 3It resulted in the death of 30% to 60% of the European population.
- 4Transmission primarily occurred via flea bites, though pneumonic transmission was also possible.
The Black Death was a plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history, leading to the death of up to 50 million people, around 30% to 60% of the European population and approximately 33% of the Middle Eastern population.
Connections1
historical context for miasma belief
The plague was historically attributed to miasmas, leading to practices like carrying pomanders or burning aromatic herbs to ward off the 'bad air'.
The Black Death was a catastrophic plague pandemic that swept through Eurasia and North Africa between 1346 and 1353. It remains one of the deadliest events in human history, causing the deaths of an estimated 50 million people. The pandemic decimated the population of Europe and the Middle East, leading to profound social, economic, and religious upheaval.
Skeletons in a mass grave from 1720 to 1721 in Martigues, near Marseille in southern France, yielded molecular evidence of the orientalis strain of Yersinia pestis, the organism responsible for bubonic plague. The second pandemic of bubonic plague was active in Europe from 1347, the beginning of the Black Death, until...Wikimedia Commons: File:Bubonic_plague_victims-mass_grave_in_Martigues,_France_1720-1721.jpgThe Oriental rat flea ( Xenopsylla cheopis ) engorged with blood. This species of flea is the primary vector for the transmission of Yersinia pestis, the organism responsible for spreading bubonic plague in most plague epidemics. Both male and female fleas feed on blood and can transmit the infection.Wikimedia Commons: File:Xenopsylla_chepsis_(oriental_rat_flea).jpgYersinia pestis (200 × magnification), the bacterium that causes plague [ 26 ]Wikimedia Commons: File:Yersinia_pestis_fluorescent.jpeg The disease was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is primarily transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas. In some cases, it also spread through contact with contaminated tissues or respiratory droplets. The sheer scale of the mortality forced societies to grapple with the limitations of contemporary medicine and eventually spurred long-term changes in public health and labor structures.