Janey Levy - Plague: The Black Death

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Levy, Janey.

Plague : the black death / Janey Levy.

pages cm. (Doomed!)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4824-2940-4 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-4824-2941-1 (6 pack)

ISBN 978-1-4824-2942-8 (library binding)

1. Plague. 2. Black DeathEuropeHistory. 3. Epidemics. I. Title.

RA644.P7L48 2016 614.5'732094dc23

2015012144

First Edition

Published in 2016 by
Gareth Stevens Publishing
111 East 14th Street, Suite 349
New York, NY 10003

Copyright 2016 Gareth Stevens Publishing

Designer: Katelyn E. Reynolds Editor: Therese Shea

Photo credits: Cover, pp. 1, 13 Hulton Archive/Getty Images; cover, pp. 1-32 (background texture) 501room/Shutterstock.com; pp. 5, 23 Ann Ronan Pictures/ Print Collector/Getty Images; pp. 7, 18 NYPL/Science Source/Getty Images; p. 9 Andrey Bayda/Shutterstock.com; p. 11 Leemage/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; p. 15 Master of Puppets and Alexrk2/Wikipedia.org; pp. 17, 19 DeAgostini/ Getty Images; pp. 21, 27 MOLA/Getty Images; p. 25 Photo12/UIG via Getty Images; p. 29 Michel du Cille/The Washington Post via Getty Images.

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Words in the glossary appear in bold type the first time they are used in the text.

On a fine early October day in 1347,12 Italian trading ships docked at Messina, Sicily.They were returning from the Black Sea, a keylink in Europes trade with China. A crowd hadgathered to greet them, but the mood quicklyturned to horror.

Most of the sailors on the ships were dead. Those still alive suffered high fever, vomiting , and severe pain. Black boils leaking blood and pus covered them. Alarmed officials ordered the death ships to leave, but it was too late. The death ships to leave, but it was too late. TheBlack Death had reachedEurope, and it would killtens of millions overthe next 5 years.What was theBlack Death? Wheredid it come from,and how was it ableto kill so many?Why couldnt itsspread be stopped?

The Deadly Details

The Italian ships had been toa trading post in modern-dayUkraine that was attacked. Theattacking army launched bodiesof Black Death victims into thetrading post, spreading thedisease to the sailors.

Today, most experts believe the Black Death was plague, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Y. pestis normally infects rats, which thenas nowcould be found wherever people lived. Its transmitted by fleas.

Plague occurs in three equally terrible forms: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Some believe the Black Death involved more than one form.

Bubonic plague is the most common form and the one transmitted by fleas. The symptoms, or signs, include high fever, aching limbs, vomiting blood, and buboesswollen lymph glands in the victims neck, armpits, and groin which give this form its name. The symptoms appear about 4 days after infection, and about 60 percent of people die within about 4 days after symptoms appear.

The Deadly Details

The Black Death may have gotten its name from the black boils and buboes on victims bodies. Or the name may have come from the Latin name for the disease: atra mors. Mors means death, and atra means terrible or black.

Pneumonic plague can develop from bubonic plague if the bacteria spread to the lungs. Its the most serious form of the disease and the only one that can be spread from person to person, much like a cold can be spread. Symptoms include fever, headache, weakness, difficulty breathing, chest pain, cough, and bloody or watery mucus . Pneumonic plague is almost 100 percent fatal, and victims may die within hours of infection.

Septicemic plague attacks the blood andcan develop from untreated bubonic plague.Symptoms include fever, chills, extremeweakness, stomach pain, and possibly bleedinginto the skin and other organs. Skin and othertissues of the body mayturn black and die,especially onfingers, toes,and the nose.Like pneumonicplague, itsalmost 100percent fatal.

The Deadly Details

If a victim of bubonic plague lived long enoughand many didnttheir buboes would burst and spurt out pus. This was extremely painful, and accounts describe victims leaping from their bed and screaming in pain.

The Black Death erupted in the 1330s somewhere in Asia, either in China or in the region now occupied largely by Kazakhstan. It was carried west along trade routes or with the Mongol army. By 1346, it had reached the region of Crimea in modern-day Ukraine, where it attacked the Mongol army. It spread to the Italian trading post there and infected sailors.