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Plague of Justinian | |
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Disease | Plague (Bubonic plague) |
Location | Mediterranean Basin, Europe, Near East |
Date | 541–549 AD |
Deaths | Not known |
The Justinian plague struck in the sixth century and is estimated to have killed between 30 and 50 million people—about half the world’s population at that time—as it spread across Asia, North Africa, Arabia, and Europe.
During the 15th Century In 1422, the Black Death impacted both Greeks Byzantines and Ottoman Turks during the siege of Constantinople and resulted in the subsequent Ottoman withdrawal. In 1423, the plague resurged in Thessaloniki (then under Venetian control) during the Venetian and Ottoman conflict over the city.
Sweating sickness | |
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Specialty | Infectious disease |
Henry IV’s health: a reign of pain In 1387, aged 20, he was afflicted by the pox, the first evidence of the skin condition – perhaps psoriasis – that would resurface in 1399 and 1405 and later severely disfigure him.
The disease – now confirmed to be bubonic plague – reached Constantinople, capital of the Late Roman or Byzantine Empire, in 541 AD. It was soon killing 10,000 people a day. Corpses littered public spaces and were stacked like produce indoors.
It was believed to start in China in 1334, spreading along trade routes and reaching Europe via Sicilian ports in the late 1340s. The plague killed an estimated 25 million people, almost a third of the continent’s population. The Black Death lingered on for centuries, particularly in cities.
Among the victims of the plague was Pericles, the leader of Athens. The plague returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/426 BC.
Procopius’ description of the disease almost certainly confirms the presence of bubonic plague as the main culprit of the outbreak. He laid blame for the outbreak on the emperor, declaring Justinian to be either a devil or that the emperor was being punished by God for his evil ways.
The Black Plague’s death toll is fiercely debated, with many historians estimating that between 25 million and 200 million people died in the space of five years. That’s a range of 5 percent to 40 percent of the world’s population at the time.
According to medieval historian Philip Daileader, it is likely that over four years, 45–50% of the European population died of plague. Norwegian historian Ole Benedictow suggests it could have been as much as 60% of the European population.
Many diseases in the Byzantine era were widespread and had a high morbidity such as respiratory disease, various kinds of anaemia, pestilential diseases (e.g. quartan fever, plague, dysentery and cholera), parasitic diseases, orthopaedic, rheumatic and psychiatric disorders, trachoma and alcoholism.
The first wave hit the empire in 1347-48, affect- ing Constantinople, Euboea, Crete, Limnos, Thessaloniki, Trebizond, Methone, Koroni, the inner part of the Byzantine Peloponnese, Rhodes and Cyprus.
What causes bubonic plague? Bubonic plague is a type of infection caused by the Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) bacterium which is spread mostly by fleas on rodents and other animals. Humans who are bitten by the fleas then can come down with plague.
Given the lack of soap and baths and an aversion to laundering clothes, a Tudor by any other name would smell as rancid. … Made from rancid fat and alkaline matter; it would have irritated skin and was instead used to launder clothes and wash other objects.
The English sweating sickness ostensibly followed Henry VII’s victorious men back to London where it killed 15,000 people in six weeks.
Arthur was well educated and was in good health for the majority of his life. Soon after his marriage to Catherine in 1501, the couple took up residence at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, where Arthur died six months later of the sweating sickness, which Catherine survived.
The first of the Bourbon kings of France, Henry IV brought unity and prosperity to the country after the ruinous 16th-century Wars of Religion. Though he was not a great strategist, his courage and gallantry made him a great military leader.
Henry VCoronation9 April 1413PredecessorHenry IVSuccessorHenry VIBorn16 September 1386 Monmouth Castle, Wales
While challenging to directly compare, it is likely that COVID-19 will not eventuate as the most damaging pandemic to society, both historically and in the modern age. The other pandemics discussed herein have had significant impacts on societies globally, with larger rates of infection and mortality.
In 2018, the five deadliest illnesses in the U.S. were heart disease, cancer, lung disease, cerebrovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. The other leading causes of death due to disease were diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, and kidney disease.
“The short answer is yes,” says Saju Mathew, M.D., a Piedmont primary care physician. “The long answer is that unless 85% of Americans get the vaccine, we are not even going to get close to ending the pandemic.”
Firstly, Poland was very densely forested area and there were long distances between villages, which meant it was difficult for the plague to travel. Secondly, there were fewer black rats in Poland, so the black rat flea, the main host and transmitter of Yersinia pestis, was less likely to be found there.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating epidemics in human history. It was the first outbreak of medieval plague in Europe, and it killed tens of millions of people, an estimated 30–50 percent of the European population, between 1347–1351 [1]–[3].
The most popular theory of how the plague ended is through the implementation of quarantines. The uninfected would typically remain in their homes and only leave when it was necessary, while those who could afford to do so would leave the more densely populated areas and live in greater isolation.
Typhoid fever Few features suggest that typhoid fever was the cause of the plague of Athens. Fever and diarrhea are the only two key clinical features consistent with a diagnosis of enteric fever.
In 430 BC, a plague struck the city of Athens, which was then under siege by Sparta during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). In the next 3 years, most of the population was infected, and perhaps as many as 75,000 to 100,000 people, 25% of the city’s population, died.
he fought the epidemic by building a great fire, which corrected the unhealthy atmosphere that caused the outbreak. Thucydides’ silence about this remarkable achievement of Hippocrates and the late date of the sources reporting it are strong witnesses against its historicity.
Treatment for the Plague was very limited. There was not a known cure for the disease. The plague doctors would have to guess as to what might cure this epidemic. They tried many attempted treatments such as vinegar and water or even telling the patients to carry flowers around with all day.
Despite the catchy name, the Plague of Justinian was identified as the bubonic plague, otherwise known for its 14th Century cousin, “The Black Death.” The disease earned its name from Justinian, the ruler of the Byzantine Empire at the time.
But it was the global roll-out of a vaccine that ultimately enabled scientists to stop smallpox in its tracks. While it is not clear whether these ancient strains of smallpox were fatal, the Vikings must have died with smallpox in their bloodstream for the scientists to detect it up to 1400 years later.
The longest-enduring pandemic disease outbreak is the Seventh Cholera Pandemic, which originated in Indonesia and began to spread widely in 1961. As of 2020, some 59 years later, this pandemic is still ongoing and infects an estimated 3-5 million people annually.
While it was certainly a horrific tragedy on a massive scale, the Black Death also spawned many of the foundations of our modern world. Perhaps not surprisingly, the death of 60 percent of Europe’s entire population had profound impacts on European society.
YearWorld PopulationYearly Change20217,874,965,8251.03 %20227,953,952,5671.00 %20238,031,800,4290.98 %20248,108,605,3880.96 %
Unpacking The “Spanish Flu” Mortality Numbers The 675,000 deaths attributed to the influenza epidemic made up 0.64 percent of the total population, a little more than six in every thousand people.
More than 50 million people died of the disease worldwide, with 675,000 in the U.S. There is some disagreement on that figure, with recent researchers suggesting it was about 17.4 million deaths, while others go as high as 100 million. The fatality rate for the Spanish flu is calculated at about 2%.
The Chronicle of 640 of Thomas the Presbyter dates the “first plague” (mawtānā qadmayā) to the year AG 854 (AD 542/3).
The plague started in the East, possibly China, and quickly spread through Europe. Whole communities were wiped out and corpses littered the streets as there was no one left to bury them. It began in London in the poor, overcrowded parish of St. Giles-in-the-Field.
Ushering the end of the Byzantine empire The plague of Justinian had a far-reaching impact on the fiscal, administrative and military framework of the empire. The population of the empire was dramatically reduced.