How you could have survived the 'BLACK PLAGUE'

The Black Death was a catastrophic period in Europe during the 14th century, when three types of plague - bubonic, septicaemia, and mnemonic - ravaged the continent and wiped out an estimated 60% of the population, or the equivalent of 450 million people today. This article examines the ways in which people of that time could have survived the plague.

Although humans have evolved and made significant strides in technology and science since the 14th century, viruses and basic biology have not. Therefore, in order to avoid getting the plague, the first step is to avoid places where large crowds gather, as the pneumonic plague can be spread through air droplets or in other words, airborne. The more people who are coughing and sneezing in close proximity, the greater the chances of spreading the infection.

On the other hand, the bubonic plague is spread through flea bites from infected mice. Rodents infected with plague riddled fleas would transfer the disease from flea to human in the right social conditions as well. Infected individuals often did not realize that they were spreading the disease, as they did not know that their plague-infested bodies were crawling with super fleas that could dump their sick host and attach themselves to a more healthy body up to two meters away. By staying more than two meters away from plague-infested fleas, one might have avoided the Black Death. Staying home and avoiding contact with others may have also been a way to stay safe, as long as one had access to food and water.

Italy, with its numerous points of entry surrounded by water, was particularly vulnerable to the plague. When word of the Black Death reached Milan, the city's leader at the time, a brutal man named Yaherd, ordered the houses of those infected with the plague to be boarded up. This was an extreme and brutal approach that doomed otherwise healthy members of the victims' families who were trapped inside the diseased homes. However, this method proved effective in containing the spread of the disease, and the city of Milan ended the Black Death with only a 15% mortality rate, the lowest of any major Italian city.

Unfortunately, other Italian cities did not fare as well. In Florence, for example, mass burial sites were layered with victims and dirt, much like making lasagna with layers of pasta and cheese. Exposure to the plague, even from the deceased, could turn a person into an ingredient of this nightmare lasagna, so loved ones often abandoned their dead in the streets without burial. As the body count rose, the Bikini, a group of men of lower social stature who themselves were inflicted with the plague, emerged to remove the deceased from the cities. However, some members of the Bikini turned to robbery and murder.

Physicians of the time were woefully unprepared to handle cases of the plague, and their ignorance contributed to the spread of the disease. They did not use adequate protection against contamination, and earlier physicians may have inadvertently contributed to the spread of the disease. After years of treating the illness, doctors eventually designed a plague uniform to protect themselves. This late-century uniform included a long overcoat, hat, and an appointed mask that, yes, made them look like birds. The beak of this mask was believed to provide an essential layer of protection, as it was filled with aromatic herbs and substances that would help to purify the air they breathed.

Despite the effectiveness of such measures, the fact remains that many people during the Black Death were not able to survive. The devastation of the disease was so great that it reshaped the social and economic landscape of Europe for centuries to come. The plague had a significant impact on everything from politics to religion to art, and the repercussions of the Black Death can still be felt today.