Plague, an Extraordinary Tragedy

Abstract

The plague—otherwise called the Black Death or bubonic plague, a ghastly disease started in the east, possibly China, and spread through Europe quickly. Whole communities were wiped out and corpses littered on the streets as there was no one left to bury them. It was the greatest catastrophe of the Middle Ages, killing in its first wave, from 1347 to 1350 perhaps around 25 per cent of Europe's population. Plague physicians served as public servant during time of epidemic starting with Black Death of Europe in the fourteenth century. Almost simultaneous epidemics occurred across large portions of Asia and the Middle East including China and India. The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every generation with varying degrees of intensity and mortality until 1700s. The remarkable later outbreaks include: 1) The Great Plague of the city of Florence in 1348. 2) The Great Plague of Milan in 1629. 3) The Great Plague of London in 1665-1666. 4) The Great Plague of Vienna in 1679. 5) The Great Plague of Marseille in 1720-1721. 6) The Plague in Moscow in 1771. The plague, one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, at the beginning of the nineteenth century was eradicated in Europe but it still survives in other parts of the world. They include Central and Oriental Africa, Madagascar, Asia, and The Americas including the United States. This paper presents a brief account of plague or Black Death pandemics in human history, resulting in mortality of around 200 million people, peaking in Europe during 1346-1353.