This year in many countries throughout the world that the flu has been deadly the CDC reported that in America it has been unusually
Active and in January was revealed that the virus was killing around 100 people every week in the u.s.
In the UK they've had the worst flu season in many years
But it's also been a global concern with countries all over Asia and Africa
Experiencing what many are calling one of the worst global flu outbreaks in a long time so much so that scientists said?
It's imperative to create a much more effective universal influenza vaccine
We might regard ourselves as fortunate though based on what you're about to hear in this episode of the infographic show could the Black Death?
happen again
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What was the Black Death also known as the plague well it was one of the worst pandemics in history killing somewhere between
75 to 200 million people in Europe and Eurasia in just a few years from 1346 to
1353 after it was done something like thirty to sixty percent of Europe's population
Had been wiped out with many others dying in other parts of the world as well in fact it killed so many
People it took centuries for the world's population to stabilize it also made comebacks in Europe later on such as the Great Plague of London
from 1665 to
1666 but the 14th century Black Death was the worst pandemic the world has ever seen in terms of loss of life
It's thought it made its way to Europe on Genoese trading ships the ships arrived at the Sicilian port of Messina
Only for those who came to greet them to be faced with a nasty surprise
most of the occupants of the ships were either dead or dying
It's thought the ships had been to parts of Central Asia
And there it said rats carrying the bacterium Yersinia pestis
Came aboard the ship's fleas on these rodents were the vectors that passed the disease to humans
Authorities in Sicily soon ordered all the death ships out of the harbor
But it was too late and soon people all over Europe are getting infected
It spread so easily
Because it was airborne which meant coughing or sneezing
Was enough to spread the disease around so what's it like to get down with a dose of black death?
During the pandemic an italian poet called giovanni boccaccio
Described it like this at the beginning of the malady certain swellings either on the groin or under the armpits waxed
to the bigness of a common Apple others to the size of an egg
Some more and some less and these the vulgar named plague boils these eggs that he describes are called buboes
Once they appeared soon after the victim would have a very high fever
usually start coughing up blood because of lung infection and
Between two and seven days it was often game over if you got it
You most likely died, but not everyone did and true to Nietzsche and philosophy
What didn't kill them made them stronger studies have found that those who survived became healthier
It's believed the plague had a mortality rate of 30 to 75 percent
It was a time of chaos as whole communities lived in fear doctors didn't want to treat the infected for fear of being infected themselves
While mobs were busy ascribing the blame to any minorities such as lepers Jews foreigners or even people with acne
Entire Jewish communities were destroyed and thousands of Jewish people were murdered you get the picture this was a grim time to be European as
We said it came back many times, but never as virulent as those years in the 1300s
What might surprise you though?
Is that the bubonic plague is still making appearances around the globe it killed 10 million in China in the 19th century more than
1,000 in Australia in the early 20th century and over a hundred in San Francisco also in the early 19th century
It's thought that in 2017 around two hundred two people died in Madagascar from the pneumonic plague
according to the w-h-o this was from
2348 confirmed probable and suspected cases fewer people died of course because of modern medicine and health care by the way there are three
kinds of plague bubonic
pneumonic and
Septicemia the difference is in how it infects you with bubonic getting your lymph nodes hence the ugly eggs
Mnemonic gets the lungs and septicemia is an infection in the blood you can be treated for a pneumonic plague with antibiotics
But left untreated you will surely die most modern cases have been in developing nations
but there have also been some cases in the USA in fact in 2015 16 and 17 a
Handful of bubonic plague cases occurred in the country the CDC reports that more than 80% of United States play cases have been the bubonic
form it stated that from 2000 to
2016
Around 7 cases of plague occurred in the country every year and most of those were in the rural West and some in northern New
Mexico and northern Arizona the worst year this century for the US was 2015 when 15 people were infected and four of them died
Also according to the CDC the Europeans are now in good shape with the department stating that all continents report instances of plague except Europe
Australia and
Antarctica the advice given by health professionals if you want to stay plague free is don't get bitten by fleas and don't mess with rats
Or other animals that could carry fleas easier said than done in
2014 a man from Oregon was infected with plague after his infected cat bit him news media reports that he had lumps under his arms
The size of lemons his hands and feet turned black due to gangrene and he was in a coma on life
Support for a month he told the Guardian
I had collapsed lungs my heart stopped and my hands and feet turned black technically I shouldn't be here
He was so violently sick because he had all three kinds of plague his cat didn't fare well
and it ended up being buried in the garden before the man got really sick the man lives a full life again -
Most of his fingers and toes so now we come to the essential question could there be another
Massive plague outbreak the answer is that it is very unlikely
Because we can treat it before it spreads
most of us these days don't live in rat infested squalor as many Londoners did back in those bleak times when the
Smithsonian asked the scientists this question. He like most others said an outbreak was unlikely
What was possible though was a plague based bio terror weapon that spreads the disease?
Yes our wonderful species has in the past created plague
bioweapons with some of the guilty countries being Japan the former Soviet Union and the United States of America
We'll leave it there. Don't be too freaked out
It's highly unlikely you'll be the victim of plague, but do you have any thoughts on whether the Black Death could happen again?
Let us know in the comments. Also be sure to check out our other video called. What would happen if humans went extinct
Thanks for watching and as always don't forget to Like share and subscribe. See you next time