Black Plague as It Relates to Aids Virus

It the early 1330's the world changed forever. An outbreak of Bubonic plague was raging through China, one of the largest and busiest trading nations of the world at the time. In October 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from one of Chinas key trading ports in the Black Sea with a boat full of dying and dead. Within a matter of days the plague had spread through the city and to the surrounding countryside.

The following year the disease had spread to England and was called the "Great Mortality" the "Great Pestilence" and the "Black Death".

Each winter the disease would follow its hosts the fleas into hibernation with the rats and each spring it would renew with as much vigor as the year before. 25 Million people died between 1347 and 1352 that constituted one third of Europe's population. In an earlier epidemic during the 6th century over 100 million deaths took place over a 50 year period. Smaller outbreaks continued for centuries and larger outbreaks did not disappear totally until the 1600's.

The worst outbreak in the English epidemics broke out in London in 1665. That summer 7,000 people died each week and as many as 100,000 died before winter set in again.

People all over Europe searched desperately for an explanation. Some blamed invisible particles carried on the wind, others poisoned wells and still others blamed the Jews. The Flagellant Brahren appeared in 1349 and were identified by their white robes marked on both front and back with a large red cross. They moved across Europe from city to city in groups as large as 500 men and performed their rituals twice daily. They believed the plague to be a punishment from god for human sin and to atone they would sign hymns, sob and beat themselves with scourges studded with iron spikes. Unknown to them they helped spread the disease even further carrying it within their bodies from town to town.

There was no way for the people to avoid the rages of the plague and to deal with it they would institute a 40 day quarantine on any household that had a member with symptoms of the plague. This almost guaranteed that the entire household would be lost. Eventually entire towns and villages would fall under quarantine.

People would abandon their dying family members and try to flee the cities leaving the disease behind. There was, of course, no where to go. Bodies began to stack up in the streets as the number of dead surpassed the living.

So what exactly was this menace of mankind? What is the plague? The plague is caused by a nasty little bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Y. Pestis is a zoonotic disease which means that it is a disease of animals with accidental involvement of humans. Y. Pestis is easily destroyed by sunlight and drying, however it is also believed that it can remain viable in dry sputum, flea feces and buried bodies. When