How many people died during the plague of the 14th century?

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The plague, also known as the Great Mortality or the Pestilence, decimated Europe. Writers of the time estimated that this illness killed 20-40% of Europeans. The plague started in Asia in the early 1340s and spread to Europe in 1347.

The fourteenth century!
if your answering yourself..why are you asking a question?

but it was 23,840,000.  (+ info)

How are the Black Death and the Bubonic Plague two different things?

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As a history B.A., I should know this but I keep getting the two confused. I know from a medical standpoint that these two things are different.

How are the Black Death and the Bubonic Plague two different things? I am aware that the Bubonic Plague was a result of the transmission of "yersinia pestis" to the known world (at the time anyway).

Thanks for clarifying this for me.
Well, the above answer is sort of correct. The Black Death refers to the plague which swept Europe from 1347 to 1351, killing an estimated 200 million people in 1347 alone.

Plague refers to Yersinia Pestis, in the Bubonic, Pnuemonic, and Septicemic forms known to science today.

There was a study done in 2002 that seemed to show that the Black death may not have been Plague, specifically because of the lack of rat population die-off, and because of the speed of transmission. Not all the experts agree, however.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1925513.stm

Also, the BBC History Series has a great set of articles about the Black Death at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml

This has interested me over the last 40 years because as a young Army Medic in Vietnam I was with a unit that encountered Plague infecting human beings. It was a real wake up call to learn that this medieval killer was still a modern day problem.  (+ info)

How did the plague spread from person to person?

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The plague, also known as the Great Mortality or the Pestilence, decimated Europe. Writers of the time estimated that this illness killed 20-40% of Europeans. The plague started in Asia in the early 1340s and spread to Europe in 1347.

The fourteenth century!
The plague spread mainly because of animals and unsanitary conditions in European towns. This disease, carried by rats was often passed on to other animals which were handled by humans. Since towns were dirty and unsanitary, disease was able to spread very quickly. Streets were unclean, etc. Once a few people were sick, it was easy to spread the disease to more people who came in contact with them. The plague was very contagious!  (+ info)

How can the plague, (any sort) be spread from humans to humans?

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Say someone had the plague, but you didn't. How near could you stand to that person without catching the plague from them? And could the plague spread to you by simply touching the infected person? And are there any other ways the plague can be spread from humans to other humans?
Pneumonic plague can spread person to person airborne. Bubonic plague will spread via flea bites.  (+ info)

How long can someone survive if they have the bubonic plague and it goes untreated?

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I've been doing a rather large amount of research on the lesser-known variation of the plague called "septicemic plague," or the blood-transmitted version of the plague. I haven't been able to find how long you can last if it goes untreated. I know the bubonic plague can kill it a matter of days, but supposedly the septicemic variation can kill in a matter of hours. Is this true, and if not how long does it take for a victim to die from untreated plague?
Bubonic plague is caused by Yersinia pestis. And I think there are a number of antibiotic for that infection. So survival depends on whether treatment was initiated early in the course of the disease or too late that the patient has gone to septicemic shock.  (+ info)

How would a future plague affect society?

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How many people would die in a future plague epidemic? How would it be controlled? Could it be prevented? Is it possible, if the plague was to mutate and become stronger? How would it affect society? How would it affect the economy? What is the potential of the plague, if it became an epidemic, due to people living closely; in cities and such, and people travelling on planes? Would it travel to other countries?
And by plague; bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic.
I was going to tell you that since those types of plague (the ones caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis) are carried by fleas and the rats they ride on, and since they are treatable with antibiotics, it would be impossible to have a large-scale epidemic like they did in historical times.

But I googled it anyway, and found a medical journal article about the hypothesis that plague could be used as a terrorist weapon. I'm sending you a link.

Although plague is unlikely to cause a future large-scale epidemic, if you are curious about what an epidemic might do, google "avian flu" or "bird flu." People are making all kinds of predictions of what would happen if that became more contagious than it is now.  (+ info)

How can plague spread from humans to humans?

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Say someone had the plague, how near could you stand to them without catching the plague too? And could the plague spread by simply touching said infected person? Also, are then any other ways that it can spread to another human?
  (+ info)

What is the best way to get rid of plague in between one's teeth?

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I brush, floss, and use mouthwash twice a day on my teeth, but yet, for some reason i still get a lot of plague build up between my teeth. Does anyone know a good way to remove it?
Zylitol is a very good sweetener that balances the fauna and flora in our digestive system. It kills a lot of the bad bacteria in the mouth. After I brush and floss my teeth I take a half of a teaspoon and put it in my mouth until it liquefies, then I swish it around until the sweetness is gone. It really reduces the amount of time I have to brush my teeth and reduces the plaque. Several mouth washes are starting to use it and even many breath fresheners.

Many toothpastes and mouthwashes have sugar which are the perfect food for plaque and odor causing flora.

You can find Zylitol in many health food stores.  (+ info)

How did people attempt to keep the plague from spreading?

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The plague, also known as the Great Mortality or the Pestilence, decimated Europe. Writers of the time estimated that this illness killed 20-40% of Europeans. The plague started in Asia in the early 1340s and spread to Europe in 1347.

The fourteenth century!
"The disease truly became pandemic in 1328 - the medieval period of the history of the world. During this period a third of the world population died. We tend to associate the history of this terrible disease with Europe however it originated in the Gobi Desert.

The disease initially followed Caravan routes and then, with aid of European Shipping and the accompanying rats, by 1346 arrived in the Crimea.

The relatively few survivors, quite naturally attempted to flee whenever the deadly virus spread to their area. But the survivors took the Black Death / Bubonic Plague with them and thus the disease spread even further by both land and sea.

Livestock and people perished. This decline of the farming communities resulted in food shortages. A major consequence of the disease was famine - and even more people perished. Surviving populations of villages and towns were forced to move or starve to death. World demographics totally altered due to the spread of the disease.

In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries victims of the Bubonic plague (Black Death) would be sealed in their houses. The houses would be locked and bolted from the outside. The victims were not allowed to leave and neither was anyone else allowed to enter. This action was tantamount to signing a death warrant for the whole family and one of the terrible consequences of the disease. Any victim of the Bubonic Plague or Black Death would have to obtain a ' Certificate of Health ' to resume normal life - if they recovered...

Watchmen were allocated to watch the ' plague houses ' and the only means of sustenance was for the victims to lower baskets from an upper window for the watchman to put food into it. Plague Pits were rapidly dug.

The Elizabethan Watchmen and the death cart labourers were, not surprisingly, very well paid. But their gruesome job entitled them to receive a good supply of alcohol. Their jobs were clearly life-threatening and there was a high mortality rate. There was no town cleansing department in the Elizabethan era. Month after month people were employed in this work, which became more and more difficult to accomplish as the plague spread and carried off one after another of the workers. When, despite the high wages, no new men for this job could be found women and boys, especially those who had recovered from the Bubonic plague (Black Death), were forced to carry out this work. Threats of imprisonment were made as encouragement to undertake these tasks and this consequence was suffered by anyone who refused the role. In later years houses containing victims were sometimes indicated with a red cross painted on the door with the words "God have Mercy". The red cross acted as a warning as there was a time when the victims of the illness were not carried away to be buried or burnt. The same deadly labour shortage continued until a medieval Physician had the idea was that the disease would be better contained by not throwing the bodies into the streets and into the approximation of other people. These corpses were left rotting in the houses until they were dragged out, weeks later, to be thrown on a cart and finally disposed of. Due to the food shortages and closure of businesses those who were not struck down by the Bubonic plague (Black Death) often resorted to stealing from the dead bodies. The penalties for this were varied and severe. Many such thieves were thrown into the pits, dead or alive, with their victims.


There was nowhere to hide from the disease and no one was safe, not even the monarch. Queen Elizabeth was terrified of the disease and implemented quarantine measures to try to ensure the safety of herself and her courtiers. When the Black Death ( Bubonic Plague ) broke out in London in 1563, Queen Elizabeth I moved her court to Windsor Castle where she erected gallows and ordered that anyone coming from London was to be hanged - so great was the fear of the plague and avoiding any spread of it to her court. Queen Elizabeth I also prohibited the import of foreign goods as a measure to prevent the spread of the disease to the Elizabethan court.

There were three very serious outbreaks of the disease which led to the closure of all places of Elizabethan entertainment, including the Globe Theater. These occurred in 1593 , 1603 and 1608.

The Elizabethan churches administered to the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) victims but very little other help was given and food was rarely distributed. Only the very wealthy would receive the ministrations of an Elizabethan Physician who would have received an education at one of the Universities. There were Elizabethan surgeons, but these had a similar reputation to the barbers and the usual route that most people took was to visit the apothecary, or dispenser of drugs. The ' wise women ' in the Elizabethan community or some members of the Church were really the victims only hope for a medical treatment and cure of the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague. Any pictures of Physicians of the Elizabethan era look very strange and quite frightening. Elizabethan Physicians adopted protective costumes against the disease in the 16th century. Elizabethan Physicians wore long dark robes with pointed hoods, leather gloves, boots, and the most bizarre masks featuring long beaks which were filled with bergamot oil. Amulets of dried blood and ground-up toads were worn at the waists of the Elizabethan Physicians. It was their custom to douse themselves with vinegar and chew angelica before approaching a victim. Although this might sound pointless today, these precautions would have protected the Elizabethan Physician. The bizarre and gruesome Physician masks would have acted as protection against contracting the disease through breathing the same air as the victim. The cover-all clothing would have protected the Elizabethan Physician from fleas and therefore the Black Death / Bubonic Plague."

In addition to the above measures attempted to control the Plague various local measures were used in different places:

bonfires at night
attacking minorities and Jews
groups of people whipping themselves
attacking strangers or travelers who came to a village
and other strategies based on fear and misunderstanding.

The central difficulty was the lack of understanding of what caused the disease and how the disease was transmitted.  (+ info)

How did ebola and the bubonic plague get under control?

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How come ebola or the bubonic plague didn't wipe out the entire population of the earth? They are so infectious, I just don't understand how it ever stopped.
ebola is something fairly new. health services in africa take drastic action to stop it. bubonic plague just burned itself out. it is still around, but modern sanitation has helped keep it in check. why the plague stopped is a good question. maybe the rats carrying the fleas got something that killed them.  (+ info)

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