Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/29/black-death-not-spread-rat-fleas-london-plague

by pessimizer • 12 years ago

31 6 12 years ago

Interesting note: This is not sourced from a research paper, but a sound bite to build interest in a documentary airing this weekend.

While the source, Tim Brooks, seems credible [1], I will be interested when more actual information comes out.

[1] http://apps.who.int/whocc/Detail.aspx?cc_ref=UNK-122&cc_code...

Steko• 12 years ago

Nothing revolutionary here. Wiki black death:

"Many modern scholars accept that the lethality of the Black Death stemmed from the combination of bubonic and pneumonic plague with other diseases and warn that every historical mention of 'pest' was not necessarily bubonic plague..."

ddeck• 12 years ago

This doesn't sound like anything new. As I understand it, it is well known that there were three distinct forms of plague during the "black death" epidemic: Bubonic, pnuemonic, and septicemic.

Below are quotes from letter sent from the papal court at Avignon in 1348:

"It is said that the plague takes three forms. In the first people suffer an infection of the lungs, which leads to breathing difficulties. Whoever has this corruption or contamination to any extent cannot escape but will die within two days. Another form...in which boils erupt under the armpits,...a third form in which people of both sexes are attacked in the groin.

...

And this form is the most dangerous of all these terrible things, which is to say that it is the most contagious, for when one infected person dies everyone who saw him during his illness, visited him, had any dealings with him, or carried him to burial, immediately follows him, without any remedy." [1]

[1] Letter from Louis Heyligen of Beeringen (27 April 1348) , via "Horrox, Rosemary (1994). Black Death"

thret• 12 years ago

As usual, comments on HN are more interesting than the article. Thank you.

damian2000• 12 years ago

So the plague doctor costumes that I'd heard were just for show actually served a useful purpose - to restrict the breathing of contaminated air?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor

7schlaefer• 12 years ago

The actual bad smell of infected people was believed to be unhealthy, so afaik most plague masks were built to provide a "good" smell through herbs or incent, but it seems plausible that some of them helped nonetheless.

Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers

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