The
catastrophe brought from the Black Death to the European society starting in
the fourteenth century was disastrous. The death toll is estimated around 70 to
200 millions at its peak in the 1350s. Even the disease was incurable until
1947, yet the death rate reduced significantly when European societies enhanced
the awareness of personal hygiene and imposed quarantine upon the sickness.
Historians
have long explained the Black Death is caused by the bubonic plague that originated
in China and carried by oriental rat fleas living on the infected rats. But
Christopher Duncan and Susan Scott, two English researchers pointed out that
the flea-borne bubonic plague could not cause the dreadful death in Europe like
the Black Death did. As Duncan asserted, “If you look at the way it spreads, it
was spreading at a rate of around 30 miles in two to three days. Bubonic plague
moves at a pace of around 100 yards a year.”
The
two researchers of the University of Liverpool compared the signs and symptoms
of the disease from the Black Death and believed the most closely virus that
could caused such devastating is Ebola. The fever is caused by Ebola strikes
much faster than bubonic plague and caused blood vessels to burst underneath
skin, similar to what British medical texts from the Middle Ages describe as “God’s
token.”
Another
observation that Duncan and Scott claimed was the quarantine period during the
Black Death. They assumed that quarantining infected families for 40 days was
effective in preventing the spread, yet if the disease were transmitted by rats,
the death rate would not decrease because rats do not observe quarantines.
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