The Black Death Epidemic Analysis

The Black Death was one of the few epidemics that greatly affected demographic catastrophes. Researchers noticed that the 11th-14th centuries were distressful times with this assassinating disease that had spread throughout many continents around the world by the lives of the people, population and societal developments. The Black Death is known by many names such as “the blue sickness,” la pest, “the great mortality or it’s scientific name Yersinia pestis (Benedictow, 2013). The Yersinia pestis is an anaerobic bacteria in, which, humans can be infected by rat, flea or both. It has three main known forms: pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic plagues. All three of these forms of Yersinia pestis are considered to be extremely deadly and dangerous.
In the first few pages of this disease analysis, I will explain the bacteria itself and how people may be infected by it. I will furthermore, discuss the common symptoms once the victim has been infected and what treatment may be given to ease the suffering. Next, I will explain the origins of this bacteria, the rumors of its false origins, and how it had the ability to travel from Asia to Europe. I will then exemplify how this bacteria has made such an impact throughout many countries such as Mongolia, Russia, India and England. These countries have evidence against these disease throughout literature, the church, and cadavers. Then, I will look further into the impacts of the economy and diverse cultures of England, which is most written and well-researched country about the Black Death. Finally, I will discuss the mortality rates of the victims in England who were affected by this disease through age, gender and location. These three factors leading up to why the people in England were the most affected by the Black
The root of the bacteria is speculated to be from the China due to a collection of recovered Chinese documents and medical works. The theory that makes the most logical provenance is Mongolia. It is quite close to China, which would make it a perfect miscalculation and error. The evidence that is Mongolia is documents from Zheng He, a Chinese mariner, who encounters the disease while exploring for possible trade routes (Benedictow, 2013). This possible trade route is later known as the Silk Road. Zheng He describes the disease as black protruding boils coming off of the body (Benedictow, 2013). China doesn’t report any disease that is relatively close to the plague until after the disease has traveled to India. This takes China out of the possible sources for Yersinia pestis. It is also thought that Russia, or the former Soviet Union could also be a possible source. It is assumed by Benedictow (2013) that the rats that were infected by Yersinia pestis originated from eastern Russia. The rats had travel from Russia and came in contact with the disease in the Mongolia region. This theory is supported by medical texts recovered in Manchuria, which is very near to Mongolia. The time delimitation allowed the origins of the disease to be removed from possible sources. Although, cultural research and science have been used to crack the true origins of the plague, it is still