If you remember the Black Death from history textbooks, it surely is enough to make you feel lucky that you’re healthy. It was the most fatal and terrifying pandemic in the history of humanity. Outbreaking in the 14th century in Eurasia and North Africa, the Black Death was causing the Bubonic plague disease that killed between 75 to 200 million people.
While getting into the people’s blood, the bacteria Yersinia Pestis that was caused by the plague could turn the limbs black. Besides this horrendous symptom, other signs of getting infected with the Bubonic plague were fever, nausea, and vomiting.
Suspected case found in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia
The new case of a person being suspected of infection with the Bubonic plague disease was identified in the city of Bayannur, which is located near the Chinese capital Beijing. Local authorities had released a Level 3 warning for plague prevention in the city.
The local health authority released the following statement:
“At present, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city. The public should improve its self-protection awareness and ability, and report abnormal health conditions promptly,”
Wikipedia reveals to us that the Black Death most likely came from Central Asia or East Asia. Then, it traveled along the Silk Road, arriving in Crimea by 1347. It was most likely carried from that place by fleas living on black rats that travelled on Genoese merchant ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean Basin. The pandemic furtherly reached Africa, and the rest of Europe through Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula.
The Bubonic plague disease is also easily-transmittable through flea bites or contact with other animals. Luckily enough, antibiotics are drastically reducing the risk of mortality due to the disease. Back in the 14th century, when the pandemic was terrorizing today’s Europe and Asia, the people that got sick from it didn’t have the privilege of owning and using any antibiotics.
