We find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic, but how dangerous is Covid-19? Should we stay at home? Do we need to wear masks? We listen to the biologists and politicians debate, and we weigh what they tell us. I think when trying to see the future, though, we must first turn around and look at the past. What cautionary tales does history provide us about plagues and pandemics? Let’s investigate the worst epidemics humans have endured, and maybe we’ll understand why we should take Covid-19 seriously.
I’ve thought and read a great deal about pandemics lately (hmmm, I wonder why?). What did we learn from the great influenza pandemic of 1918, or how did humans respond to the bubonic plague or smallpox?
Over my next three posts, I plan to discuss the worst plagues and pandemics the world has faced. Only one of the deadliest diseases ever to attack humans has been cured. Several of the others can now be treated, but a few infectious diseases remain elusive to us, even today with our advancements in science and medicine.
Let me begin with a plague I’m sure many of you think only belongs in the history books.
Yersinia pestis
The bacterium Yersinia pestis caused three of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history. This organism spawns the bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague. The bacterium invades but does not harm fleas, and the fleas usually pass it on to small animals such as rats. Humans contract the plague either through flea bites or from exposure to the body fluids of dead animals infected with the bacteria. One to seven days after exposure to Yersinia pestis, a human develops flu-like symptoms, including fever, headaches, and vomiting. In the area where the bacteria entered the skin, painful lymph nodes swell and sometimes even break open. The plague poses a mortality rate of 30-90% if not treated. After the discovery and widespread use of penicillin in the 1940s, the death rate from the plague dropped to 10%.
The following represent three of the worst plague pandemics.
The Plague of Justinian
The Plague of Justinian hit Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 541 CE. Historians believe the plague crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt, brought by fleas carried on rats hiding in the grain holds of ships. The plague wiped out 40 % of the population of Constantinople and then raced across Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Arabia. In one year, this plague killed an estimated 30 to 50 million people or half the world’s population.
The Black Death
From 1346 to 1353, the Black Death annihilated between 75 to 200 million people in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Between 25% to 60 % of the population of Europe died during this pandemic. Experts believe this outbreak began in Asia and again jumped continents, spread by fleas riding on rats aboard merchant ships. People referred to the plague as the black death because of the black skin spots associated with the disease.
Humans did not know what caused the plague nor how to stop the disease, but they understood it spread by proximity to infected individuals. In Venice, authorities required boats to remain isolated and away from port for forty days to ensure the sailors did not bring the disease to shore. The Italian sailors referred to this forty-day isolation as “quarantino,” from which we derived the word quarantine.
The Great Plague of London
From 1348 to 1665, the plague continued to ravage England. The Great Plague of 1665 was the last and one of the worst of the epidemics, killing 100,000 London residents in six months. The name “Bubonic” derived from the appearance of blackened swellings, or buboes, in the victim’s groin or armpits.
While some reports state that Yersinia pestis is now extinct and no longer a threat, nothing could be further from the truth. In 2007, a wildlife biologist working in the Grand Canyon found a dead mountain lion. Curious about what killed the lion, he performed a necropsy on the animal. A week later, the biologist died. Yersinia pestis had infected both the mountain lion and the biologist. This death was not an isolated incident. Since 2000, the CDC has received between one and 17 reports per year of cases of the plague. Luckily, today we know to treat the plague with antibiotics, and this treatment not only helps stop the spread of the dreaded disease but also usually saves those individuals infected with it. Should Yersinia pestis become resistant to modern-day antibiotics, though, we could again face an epidemic of the plague.
In my next post, I’ll discuss smallpox, cholera, and AIDS. Until then, wear a mask, social distance, and wash your hands. From the Middle Ages to today, doctors have learned those are the only three sure actions humans can take to battle a pandemic.
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Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder
