Deadliest Diseases in History
The Black Death: Bubonic Plague
The Black Death ravaged most of Europe and the Mediterranean from 1346 until 1353. Over 50 million people died, more than 60% of Europe's entire population at the time.
Many historians believe it started in the Steppes of Central Asia, a vast area of grassland that even today still supports one of the world's biggest plague reservoirs - an area where rodents live in great numbers and density (also called a plague focus).
Plague is mainly spread through the bite of a flea infected with the plague-causing bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Fleas typically live on small animals such as rats, gerbils, marmots and squirrels and periodically, explosive outbreaks of plague occur among these susceptible hosts. Huge numbers of animals succumb to infection and die. Hungry fleas turn to humans and within three to five days of a bite, fever, headache, chills, and weakness develop. Lymph nodes closest to the bite site swell to form a painful bubo in the variant of plague known as bubonic plague. Infection may spread throughout the blood stream and affect respiration in the lungs. Without prompt antibiotic treatment, 80% of infected people die within five days.
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