Plague is a disease caused by bacteria.
Plague is a term that derives from the Latin pestis and refers to a serious illness that can be spread among affected people and has a high mortality rate. A bacteria called Yersinia pestis is responsible for causing this disease that affects humans and animals.
It is often said that the plague is the infectious disease that has caused the most deaths throughout history. To understand its scope, we can remember the pandemic that developed in the 14th century on the European continent and was known as the Black Death : the figures speak of more than 25 million fatalities. It is believed that the magnitude of the pandemic was due to a variety of the aforementioned bacteria.
Types of plague
According to the type of infection and the characteristics of the disease, different classes of pests can be distinguished. Bubonic plague is the most widespread: it occurs when an individual is bitten by a flea that, in turn, was lodged in a rodent that had the infection. Another possibility is that the person comes into contact with a material contaminated by the bacillus. High fever, swollen glands and headache are some of the symptoms of bubonic plague.
If the bacteria attacks the lungs, we have a case of pulmonary plague . The infection, in these cases, can spread through the air and its inhalation. Small droplets of saliva from an infected person may be enough for them to spread their disease.
Bubonic plague is transmitted by rodents.
The black death
The plague or black death left an indelible mark in the 14th century , reaching its most devastating point between the years 1347 and 1353 . In addition to the 25 million human beings who died in Europe , as mentioned in a previous paragraph, it is estimated that the number of victims on the Asian continent was around 50 million.
Studies carried out today indicate, in fact, that the Black Death began in Asia and it was through trade routes that it spread to Europe . The sailors unknowingly took her to Messina , a city in southern Italy , and thus began the second phase of the attack of this devastating pandemic. It is worth mentioning that although certain areas lost all their inhabitants, others were not affected by the plague at all, or suffered slightly.
To cite some of the specific data : in the Italian city of Florence only 20% of the population could be saved; In the territory that currently belongs to Germany , history tells that the casualties were equivalent to 10% of its inhabitants, with the majority of deaths in the cities of Bremen , Hamburg and Cologne , and the minority in the east.
On a social level, the Black Death had very serious consequences. For example, Jews were accused of having caused the pandemic through well poisoning (the contamination of drinking water networks deliberately caused to harm others) and food poisoning. This gave rise to Jewish pogroms in various parts of the European continent, which wiped out many of their communities in a manner as unjust as it was atrocious.
The plague as something harmful or unpleasant
It should be noted that the concept of plague is also used to name any type of illness ( "I don't feel well, I must have a plague" ), something unpleasant or of poor quality ( "That's a plague, keep it away from me" ). , to what can cause problems or harm ( “ Alcoholism is a plague for this town” ) and to what is found in large numbers ( “The teenage plague invaded shopping centers during the winter holidays” ).
There is also a colloquial verbal expression that also uses the term: it is “saying bad things about someone.” With it, what we try to express is that an individual finds himself speaking negatively about another person, criticizing his attitude, his way of being or his way of behaving.
The term in literature
Within the field of literature we come across works that revolve around the plague or that use it in their titles.
Thus, for example, we find the book “Tales of the Plague” . It is a play performed by the masterful Mario Vargas Llosa that tells how several young people are locked up in a mansion on the outskirts of the city, which is being devastated by the plague. A confinement that they will take advantage of to tell all kinds of stories, that talk about love, power, humor...
We must not overlook either that the Black Death becomes one of the main protagonists of the novel “A World Without End” , the second part of “The Pillars of the Earth” . The British writer Ken Follet is the author of the work, in which, in addition to the personal lives of the central characters, an approach is made to how that serious illness wreaked havoc among the population of the 14th century .