The plague decimated Constantinople and spread like wildfire across Europe, Asia, North Africa and Arabia killing an estimated 30 to 50 million people, perhaps half of the world’s population. Believing that the plague was spread through the air, the doctors would fill the nose area of the mask with incense in order to overpower the “bad air”. Plague did not appear in Douai in Flanders until the turn of the 15th century, and the impact was less severe on the populations of Hainaut, Finland, northern Germany, and areas of Poland. Infected fleas spread the infection to animals, commonly …

This belief led to doctors of the period wearing strange outfits with masks that looked like the beak of a bird. In An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, author Jim Murphy shows what happened when Philadelphia was hit by the deadly yellow fever. The three types of plague are the result of the route of infection: bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague. The pneumonic form is generally spread between people through the air via infectious droplets. How the Plague Spread Most historians think the source for bubonic plague originated in the remote grasslands of Centra Asia.

Transmission of these droplets is the only way that plague can spread between people. The plague is caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis, which is transmitted by fleas. This discrepancy spurred Katharine Dean , an ecologist at the University of Oslo, and her colleagues to study the patterns of how disease moves through a population. Over the years, many outbreaks of infectious diseases have occurred and spread across the United States. Monks, nuns, and priests were especially hard-hit since they cared for victims of the Black Death. Cats are particularly susceptible to plague, and can be infected by eating infected rodents. At the turn of the 20th century, the world was gripped by a plague pandemic that had spread from China to port cities around the globe. Evacuation did not necessarily save those fleeing, as some were already infected or traveling with plague carriers. For instance, some believed that the plague was spread by “bad air” and thought that they could cleanse the air with the burning of incense. An American Plague - The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy provides a historic account of the devastation brought on by the relentless, invisible plague that literally brought Philadelphia and the federal government to its knees. A team from the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor unearthed the remains in a funerary complex in the ancient city of Thebes. It portrays the agony and pain this disease brought upon the American people marking its place in history in order to never be forgotten. It may also result from exposure to the body fluids from a dead plague-infected animal. The Black Death is the term that historians use to describe the spread of the bubonic plague. 1633-1634: Smallpox from European settlers Smallpox came to … An American Plague was one of the finalists in the 2003 National Book Award and was a 2004 Newbery Honor Book. However, … It is believed that the plague first began in Central Asia and spread to Europe through vast trade routes such as the Silk Road.Historians studying the spread of the plague discovered that the disease was spread by fleas that are commonly found on rodents such as rats and mice. This type of spread has not been documented in the United States since 1924, but still occurs with some frequency in developing countries. Wild rodents there infected with Y. pestis (along with their flea parasites) migrated to nearby villages after some natural disaster disturbed their food supply. Bubonic and septicemic plague are generally spread by flea bites or handling an infected animal. Plague doctors wore protective dress to treat victims of the plague History has seen many pandemics, but the bubonic plague, better known as the Black Death was one of the most devastating. Bubonic plague is mainly spread by infected fleas from small animals. How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America The toll of history’s worst epidemic surpasses all the military deaths in World War I and World War II combined. However, it did help to spread … By Candida Moss, special to CNN (CNN) - Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed relics from an apocalyptic plague that some Christians believed heralded the end of the world -an idea that likely helped spread the faith centuries ago.

Plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria, which is spread through the bite of fleas carried by infected rodents. Citizens of Tournai bury plague victims. Just for some LOL on a grim subject: The Kensington Runestone purports to record an expedition from Norway to the central US (west Minnesota, near Alexandria) in 1362. The spread of the plague during the Black Death, killing millions, was fueled by humans, not rodents, as previously believed, a new study has found.