In modern times, if you get sick your parents take you to the doctor and you get some medicine to feel better, but in the fourteenth century illnesses like “The Black Death” would spread from town to town, wiping out entire villages of people.
In today’s educational animated video we look at what made the ” Black Plague (Black Death)” so deadly. As terrible as it was, what can we learn from the history about this disease?
Black Death: What is the Black Plague?
Black Death, a pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, took a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time.
The Black Death is widely believed to have been the result of a plague, caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Modern genetic analyses indicate that the strain of Y. pestis introduced during the Black Death is ancestral to all extant circulating Y. pestis strains known to cause disease in humans.
Hence, the origin of modern plague epidemics lies in the medieval period. Other scientific evidence has indicated that the Black Death may have been viral in origin.
How many people died during the Black Plague?
It is not been proven for sure as to how many people died during the Black Death. But it has been estimated that about 25 million people died in Europe from the plague between 1347 and 1351.
