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    Middle Age Europe's Pandemics

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    Jorge A.
    During the Middle Ages in Europe, several deadly diseases plagued the population in epidemic proportions, including leprosy, bubonic plague (Black Death), smallpox, and others. Leprosy infected about 1 in 30 people during this time. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 from Asia and killed over 20 million people, almost one-third of Europe's population. Smallpox first appeared around 10,000 BC and spread from Africa to India and Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, causing frequent epidemics during the Middle Ages.

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    Middle Age Europe's Pandemics

    Uploaded by

    Jorge A.
    30 views3 pages
    During the Middle Ages in Europe, several deadly diseases plagued the population in epidemic proportions, including leprosy, bubonic plague (Black Death), smallpox, and others. Leprosy infected about 1 in 30 people during this time. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 from Asia and killed over 20 million people, almost one-third of Europe's population. Smallpox first appeared around 10,000 BC and spread from Africa to India and Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, causing frequent epidemics during the Middle Ages.

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    ensayo en ingles de las pandemias de la edad media

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    Middle Age Europe's pandemics

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    During the Middle Ages in Europe, several deadly diseases plagued the population in epidemic proportions, including leprosy, bubonic plague (Black Death), smallpox, and others. Leprosy infected about 1 in 30 people during this time. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 from Asia and killed over 20 million people, almost one-third of Europe's population. Smallpox first appeared around 10,000 BC and spread from Africa to India and Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, causing frequent epidemics during the Middle Ages.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    30 views3 pages

    Middle Age Europe's Pandemics

    Uploaded by

    Jorge A.
    During the Middle Ages in Europe, several deadly diseases plagued the population in epidemic proportions, including leprosy, bubonic plague (Black Death), smallpox, and others. Leprosy infected about 1 in 30 people during this time. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347 from Asia and killed over 20 million people, almost one-third of Europe's population. Smallpox first appeared around 10,000 BC and spread from Africa to India and Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, causing frequent epidemics during the Middle Ages.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Middle Age Europe's pandemics

    In terms of disease, the Middle Ages can be regarded as beginning with


    the plague of 542 and ending with the Black Death (bubonic plague) of
    1348. Diseases in epidemic proportions included leprosy, bubonic
    plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, scabies, erysipelas, anthrax,
    trachoma, sweating sickness, and dancing mania.

    Leper:
     leper is as much an icon of medieval art as the crown or the cross.
    Leprosy was so common in Europe during the Middle Ages that it's
    estimated 1 in 30 people was infected with the bacteria. But by the
    turn of the 16th century, after the Crusades had swept across Europe,
    the disease mysteriously disappeared. And it never returned.

    A study published in Science Thursday shows that the ancient leprosy


    genome is nearly identical to the genome of modern-day leprosy.
    Extracting a pathogen's DNA from human skeletons is nearly
    impossible, says microbiologist Stewart Cole of the Ecole Polytechnique
    Fédérale de Lausanne. "The material was a mixture of human DNA,
    microorganisms and contaminating DNA from other bones and
    surrounding soil," he says.

    Bubonic plague (Blak Death):


    The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic
    plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. The plague
    arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black
    Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on
    the docks were met with a horrifying surprise: Most sailors
    aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill
    and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Sicilian
    authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the
    harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the Black
    Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe—almost
    one-third of the continent’s population.
    The plague is thought to have originated in Asia over 2,000 years
    ago and was likely spread by trading ships, though
    recent research has indicated the pathogen responsible for the
    Black Death may have existed in Europe as early as 3000 B.C.

    Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, now known as


    the plague, is spread by a bacillus called Yersinia  pestis. (The
    French biologist Alexandre Yersin discovered this germ at the end
    of the 19th century.)

    They know that the bacillus travels from person to


    person through the air, as well as through the bite of infected
    fleas and rats. Both of these pests could be found almost
    everywhere in medieval Europe, but they were particularly at
    home aboard ships of all kinds—which is how the deadly plague
    made its way through one European port city after another.

    Smallpox:
    Historians believe that smallpox appeared around 10,000 B.C. during
    the first agricultural settlements in northeastern Africa. From there it
    spread to India by means of ancient Egyptian merchants. Furthermore,
    observations of typical skin rashes on Egyptian mummies dating from
    1100 to 1580 B.C. give credence to theories that ancient Egypt was an
    early region with endemic smallpox.

    Unambiguous descriptions of the disease were documented in 4th-


    century China, 7th-century India, and the Mediterranean region, as well
    as 10th-century southwestern Asia. It is estimated that smallpox was
    introduced to Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, with frequent
    epidemics during the Middle Ages.

    The disease was generally confined to the Eurasian landmass before the
    15th century; however, European colonists introduced smallpox to the
    Americas (but also Africa and Australia) between the 15th and 18th
    centuries with devastating case-fatality rates that approached 90%. It is
    generally believed that this was instrumental in the fall of the empires
    of the Aztecs and the Incas.

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