The Bubonic Plague

The Bubonic Plague
Logan E Lewis The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, first occurred during the early 1330’s in Europe. It was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. The plague circulates mainly among small rodents and their fleas. They are affected with the bacteria called Yersinia Pestis. Fleas carry it in the blood that they suck, from a rodent or human. Back then, nobody knew the actual cause of this horrible outbreak and most people who got it died within the first few days. The Plague is an infection of the lymph glands, which become swollen and very painful, which is known as Buboes. After it is transmitted from a bite of an infected flea the Yersinia Pestis becomes localized in an inflamed lymph node where they start to colonize and reproduce. Buboes are often found in the armpits or groin area. The symptoms are sudden and quick, that took lives in 2 to 3 days. Once a person was dead, they would toss the body outside of their door and throw them out into the streets. Eventually, people dug trenches for the bodies, and bury them all at one time. Prevention could have made a huge change in this era, such as sanitation, quarantine, and clean-up. When people became infected, the doctors that they had left would visit and try to treat the patient. When they treated them, they didn’t wear gloves or wash their hands before/after touching a patient. Gloves could have helped prevent the doctors from catching the bacteria from a person with open wounds. Washing their hands would have gotten rid of the bacteria they already had on their hands or even the bacteria from the patient. This could have saved many doctors lives, which would have saved many people of the community. When burying the bodies in trenches, they didn’t burry them deep enough, little earth covered their bodies. They needed to be buried deeper to secure safer sanitation. When people started stealing, it was very dangerous and risky. They would become sick from the infected homes that they stole from. Stealing started to become a huge issue during this epic outbreak of disease (Document 1 & 3). Once a person got infected in a house, that usually meant everybody else in that house was going to get the disease. So they just locked themselves in their houses by nailing themselves in, so many people died from hunger. To avoid everyone in that family of becoming ill, they could have sent the sick patient to a place of quarantine in the town. It would be only for people who are ill, that have the bubonic plague. The building would have caregivers who are fully protected, by wearing a mask, gloves, and practiced good hand washing. This would have prevented many deaths throughout the towns in Europe (All Documents). The communities needed a better clean up system of the dead bodies in town. Once a person died, they tossed the body out into the street, and went on with their lives. The bodies kept building up in the town until they decided to build trenches to bury these bodies in. Once the streets were full of dead bodies, they buried in these trenches. Instead of waiting for the streets to be full of dead people, they should have buried them individually and safe. Also, if they wanted to still do the trenches, they should have buried the people deeper. Once they were buried, they should have disposed of wound dressings, linens, and clothes to infectious waste by incinerating. Another thing that could have been done is disinfection of an infectded home where sick people were or buried in the ground (Document 3). The plague effected

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