Rats and Fleas: The Minions of Death
We are just about wrapping up this course. I think that this course is my favorite one by far because we learned how epidemics spread and how probability could come in handy when finding out the R0 (pronounced R-nought, which is a term that scientists use when they refer to how contagious a disease is). In this project, we had to research a disease that was significant in the world of medicine. The disease that I chose was the Bubonic Plague, most commonly known as the Black Death. We also had to make a newspaper article that gives a breakdown as to what the disease is, and this newspaper would consist of basic information, such as how many people died, what countries were affected, and so forth.
Black Plague Facts:
- Three main symptoms that the black plague causes, are Fever, Extreme weakness, and shock.
- It occurred from 1346 to 1353 in Western Eurasia and North Africa.
- The cause that led to the outbreak of the Bubonic Plague was a bacteria called, Yersinia Pestis, which was said to be transmitted to humans by rats, who had the disease because the fleas transmitted the disease to them.
- The Black Plague would be considered to be a global Pandemic because it affected a huge part of the world, and it had taken lots of lives. Since this was one of the most horrific diseases known to man, taking over 200 million lives, it had to be examined by doctors so that something like this may never happen again.
- The outbreak negatively affected the world because the plague almost killed humanity. The population at the time was 500 Million people and the plague killed over 200 million people. This meant that the population dropped by nearly half, making it harder for people to get over the deaths of millions.
- At the time of the Black Death, there was no vaccine because Humans were not too keen in terms of medicine. But as of right now, there is in fact a vaccine. This vaccine has helped us overcome the nastiness of the plague, making this disease more tolerable for humans to take head-on.
- The Black Death died out because the people that were still alive had immunity to the plague.
- R0 (R-nought) for the bubonic plague was estimated to be effectively above unity ranging from 1.5599–1.9332 with an average of 1.7465. The measures that were taken was to have the people that were sick quarantine in their homes
Newspaper:
“Black Death.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Feb. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death#:~:text=The%20Black%20Death%20.
Sichone, Joseph, et al. “Estimating the Basic Reproduction Number for the 2015 Bubonic Plague Outbreak in Nyimba District of Eastern Zambia.” PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0008811#:~:text=R0%20for%20bubonic%20plague%20was%20estimated%20to%20be%20effectively,with%20an%20average%20of%201.7465.
