Controversy over the Black Death

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.

Cited: Sterling , Jen. “Was Ebola Behind The Black Death? .” ABC NEWS . N.p., 30 July . Web.