3.13.2
Origins and spread of the plague
Origins Bubonic plague is found, and is endemic , in western Arabian Peninsula, Kurdistan, northern India, and the Gobi Desert. It usually stays dormant but has caused major pandemics at different times. One theory is that, during the time of the Black Death, climate change forced rodents to move, spreading the fleas that carried the plague.
SkillBuilder discussion Causes and consequences 1. How did fleas living on black rats transmit the bacteria that caused the Black Death to humans? 2. What role did black rats play in the spread of the Black Death across Europe? 3. How might living conditions in medieval Europe have contributed to the spread of the Black Death through fleas and rats?
SOURCE3 The bacteria that caused the Black Death were transmitted by fleas living on the bodies of black rats.
Did you know? When a flea became infected with the plague bacteria, the bacteria would multiply quickly and block the flea’s feeding tube. This would make the flea very hungry. It would try to feed on the blood of a host (an animal or human) but could not swallow the blood because of the blocked feeding tube. The blood mixed with the bacteria would be regurgitated and enter the host through the open wound, leading to a new infection. Transmission of the plague In 1894, scientists identified a bacterium they called Yersinia pestis as the cause of all three forms of the plague. These bacteria were spread by different types of fleas, especially those living on black rats. When rats thrived, fleas could bite other animals and humans, spreading the bubonic or septicaemic plague . Fleas could bite many people, increasing the infection rate. Pneumonic plague was the most contagious because it infected the lungs. It caused severe coughing, spreading bacteria into the air. Anyone nearby could breathe in the bacteria and get infected. 3.13 SkillBuilder activity USING HISTORICAL SOURCES When living through catastrophic events such as a global pandemic, sometimes it’s easy to forget that history books will look back at these times as areas of study. Consider the ways in which we are examining a pandemic nearly 1000 years ago and compare that to how the COVID-19 pandemic might be studied in future years.
90 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator