Lawrence Andrews - The Plague

Published in 2015 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

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Copyright 2015 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC First Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Andrews, Lawrence, 1955- author.

The plague / Lawrence Andrews.

pages cm. (Deadliest diseases of all time)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-50260-087-5 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-50260-086-8 (ebook) 1. PlagueHistoryJuvenile literature. I. Title.

RC172.A53 2015 616.9232dc23

2014024961

Editor: Kristen Susienka

Senior Copy Editor: Wendy A. Reynolds

Art Director: Jeffrey Talbot

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Senior Production Manager: Jennifer Ryder-Talbot

Production Editor: David McNamara

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The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of: Cover photo and page 1, CDC/File:Acral gangrene due to plague.jpg/Wikimedia Commons; Cover photo and page 1, BSIP/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; Horse Crazy/Shutterstock.com, 4; De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images, 7; De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images, 8; SCIEPRO/ Science Photo Library/Getty Images, 10; Josse Lieferinxe/The Bridgeman Art Library/Getty Images, 12; Nicole Duplaix/ Photolibrary/Getty Images, 13; DEA/A. Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images, 17; NYPL/Science Source/Photo Researchers/ Getty Images, 18; INTERFOTO/Sammlung Rauch/Mary Evans, 22; Andy85719/File:Bubonic plague-en.svg/Wikimedia Commons, 25; NYPL/Science Source/Photo Researchers/Getty Images, 27; File:Shibasaburo Kitasato.jpg/Wikimedia Commons, 31; Heiko Kiera/Shutterstock.com, 32; Elliot + Fry Photo Co./File:Waldemar Haffkine.jpg/Wikimedia Commons, 34; Wolfgang Sauber/File:Naturns St.Proculus-Museum - Pestfriedhof 1.jpg/Wikimedia Commons, 35; Kyslynskyy/iStock/Thinkstock, 38;

CDC National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases/Division of VectorBorne Infectious Diseases, 39; CDC/ Courtesy of Larry Stauffer, Oregon State Public Health Laboratory/File:Yersinia pestis fluorescent.jpeg/Wikimedia Commons,

40; worldswildlifewonders/Shutterstock.com, 42; Rodd100/Shutterstock.com, 45; Alexander Raths/iStock/Thinkstock, 49; Zsolt Biczo/Shutterstock.com, 50; Joolz/File:Bin.JPG/Wikimedia Commons, 52; AP Photo/Tannen Maury, 56.

Printed in the United States of America

In medieval times, cats and dogs were thought to bring plague to humans.

D o you have a pet, such as a dog, a cat, or a rat? Chances are that if you lived in Europe in the 1300s, your pet would have been feared and accused of bringing a terrible illness known as the Black Plague to everyone you knew and loved. This disease spread very quickly and came from bacteria living inside fleas on rodents. The fleas would bite dogs or cats, which could spread the disease to humans. From there, people passed it on by touching infected animals or breathing the air of a person suffering from plague pneumonia. It killed people very quickly. For instance, a healthy person could go to sleep one night and be dead the next morning.

The disease did not originate in Europe.

Beforehand, it had affected people in China, Egypt, and India, and no one knew how to stop it. The plague that struck Asia and Europe during the fourteenth century is known as the Black Plague, or the Black Death. The name comes from the large black dots that covered a persons skin.

The Black Plague is one of the most important and devastating events in European and Asian history. It killed approximately 20 million people in Europe and many others throughout the rest of the known world at that time. Some areas of Europe were so devastated that there were not enough people left to bury the dead. Entire generations were wiped out by what was thought to be one disease. Todays historians believe more than one strain of the disease killed these huge amounts of people, though.

Parents sent their children to other parts of the world, where they thought they would be safe. However, the plague seemed to follow them. As one child wrote in 1348:

A few months after my sister and I arrived in Paris, the plague struck there, too. This time, I stayed to witness its terrible devastation. My sister soon became ill. It started with a headache and chills, and soon she had growths the size of eggs under the skin on her legs. My sister passed away within three days of getting the plague. My cousins fell victim to the plague as well. I feared that the plague would continue to ravage the city until no one was left.

This painting from the fifteenth century shows a man praying before St. Sebastian for protection from the plague.

Eventually, a way of combatting the disease was found, but even today the disease exists. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), each year between 1,000 and 2,000 cases of the bubonic plague are reported around the world. The highest number of cases occur in Africa, though a few also appear in the western United States and other areas of the world. Advances in medicine and research have allowed us to learn that plagues, as well as other illnesses, have direct scientific causes. This knowledge helps us discover ways of avoiding and limiting the illness.

How did this disease begin, and how did humanity fight it? To answer these questions, we must first understand what the plague is.

Doctors had many ways of treating plague victims, as this painting from the fifteenth century illustrates.

W hen you think of the plague, what comes to mind? A painting from the Middle Ages? A rat? The image of the Grim Reaper, which originated during the Black Death? Plagues are one of the most frightening diseases that affect humanity. If not treated early, they can lead to a widespread global threat of disfigurement and death.