History
By Catherine Rose
The History of the Pandemic Despite our increased global mobility meaning pandemics are potentially more likely, diseases have been crossing country borders for centuries. One of the earliest pandemics, the Justinian plague, began in 500 AD, spreading from Egypt into Palestine, the Byzantine Empire and then Europe. Similar to bubonic plague, it killed twenty-six per cent of the world’s population – around five hundred million – thwarting Roman Emperor Justinian’s plans to revitalise the Roman Empire. 1347 saw the first wave of the Black Death, a pneumonic form of bubonic plague – one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. Originating in Asia, it is likely to have travelled along the Silk Route and then by ship into Europe. It is believed, as with later outbreaks, that it was spread via fleas contaminated with the yersinia pestis bacteria. The disease is estimated to have killed hundreds of millions of people worldwide and up to sixty per cent of the population in Europe. Characterised
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by a fever and buboes, the Black Death could kill within hours. Whole villages were wiped out and in cities people were confined to their homes, a cross marking the door to indicate if they had the plague within. Carts were piled high with bodies as people were ordered to ‘bring out their dead’. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the bacteria were discovered. At the time, it was believed that the plague was caused by miasma or ‘bad air’. It was even thought that the illness could jump out of a dead man’s eyes and infect a healthy person. Many believed that sinners were being punished. Groups of flagellants took to the streets, whipping themselves to appease an angry God. What a strange sight that would be to us today! The Black Death lasted until 1352 and had huge economic and social repercussions. Instances of bubonic plague returned over the following centuries. In 1665, the Great Plague of London spread from ports along the Thames and
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