A thread about the Black Death...

[AFK]

and how it almost killed this little girl

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/06/13697324-fortunate-to-be-alive-girl-7-contracts-bubonic-plague-at-colorado-campground?lite


There's some Horror for you this Thursday morning.

[Luna]

Fuck.

[East Coast Hustle]

It's not really that uncommon in parts of the west. Getting the plague is something of a pastime for the tweekers in eastern Oregon.

[The Dark Monk]

Squirrels carry it in Sacramento and people STILL feed them.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

There are a few cases every year, almost always during the summer... the first case this year was in New Mexico, in May. Most reported cases survive because it's easily treated with antibiotics.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00026077.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm55d825a1.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6007a4.htm

RWHN, weren't you supposed to be grieviously offended that I didn't believe you had a Masters degree in Public Health? This isn't helping, bro. This shit is the FIRST thing anyone going into public health learns about. I believe you have a degree of some kind, just not an MPH as you tried to lead on.

[Suu]

Yersinia Pestis is a different variety OF the Bubonic which caused the Black Death. Bubonic Plague itself is NOT the Black Death. That epidemic was caused because everyone in Europe north of the Alps had walking pneumonia during the Mini Ice Age. My preemptive master's thesis is on the correlation between climate change, the Black Death, and clothing styles from the 14th to 16th centuries.

[Chaser]

So why isn't the Black Death still a thing?

[Suu]

Because the warming period in the 16th century stopped people from being pneumatic, in addition to changes in fashion to accommodate climate more effectively. It's always been "around," but changes in hygienic habits and the advent of antibiotics stopped that mutation from being a significant threat.

[Suu]

Also, she doesn't have roseys, nor did they say that she had roseys or any form of a rash. Thus: NOT Black Death, just Bubonic Plague.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yersinia Pestis is a different variety OF the Bubonic which caused the Black Death. Bubonic Plague itself is NOT the Black Death. That epidemic was caused because everyone in Europe north of the Alps had walking pneumonia during the Mini Ice Age. My preemptive master's thesis is on the correlation between climate change, the Black Death, and clothing styles from the 14th to 16th centuries.

Wait wat really?

[Suu]

Well, think about it...

In the 1300s, Europeans were wearing tighter fitting garments of thicker wools that locked in moisture and vermin. In more northern climates, they would LAYER it. (South of the Alps in Italy and Byzantium, they wore linen and less layers, and they were not impacted as much by the disease as France and Germany.)

By the time the 1500s came around, cotton was being introduced SLOWLY (it was fucking expensive,) linen and silk were becoming more affordable in the northern lands due to the movement of cultivation to Italy via Byzantium following the sack of Constantinople in 1453, as well as a HUGE style change which resulted in less clothing actually worn against the body. Detachable sleeves, farthingales to open skirts rather than layers of fabric, etc.

There is a documented massive change in climate between 1350 and 1550. Like...temps hitting 100*F+  in London during the reign of Henry VIII. They can also tell by vegetation and soil and such.

[Cain]

There's also the Mongols reopening the Silk Road traderoute, allowing Central Asian diseases to break out of their natural habitat and run rampant through the Middle East and Europe, where there was little in the way of natural immunity.  While a previously unknown ancestral variant of Bubonic Plague is conclusively responsible for a large amount of deaths, it seems more likely that Europeans were attacked by a variety of dieases from that region during the same period, which allows for the wide amount symptoms and abnormally large death toll.

[AFK]

Meh, sorry, a horrid awful disease almost killed a little girl.  Black Death, Yffing Persidis, whatever. 


Are we all happy now?

[Suu]

There's also the Mongols reopening the Silk Road traderoute, allowing Central Asian diseases to break out of their natural habitat and run rampant through the Middle East and Europe, where there was little in the way of natural immunity.  While a previously unknown ancestral variant of Bubonic Plague is conclusively responsible for a large amount of deaths, it seems more likely that Europeans were attacked by a variety of dieases from that region during the same period, which allows for the wide amount symptoms and abnormally large death toll.

Indeed. Most plagues moved East. The Antonine Plague is the first documented event of such an epidemic. It appears to be the first time smallpox was introduced to western society.

[Cain]

The Mongols using it as biological warfare against the Genoese didn't exactly help matters, either.