Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Almanac inquiry - The biggest plague in human history: how did the Black Death stop raging?

The biggest plague in human history: how did the Black Death stop raging?

In the first spring of 2020, COVID-19, which broke out from Wuhan, began to wreak havoc. Under the leadership of the Party and the state, the people of China responded quickly. The most effective way to deal with the spread of COVID-19 epidemic is to adopt the isolation system. Through the methods of village isolation and regional isolation, we finally defeated COVID-19.

As early as the Black Death14th century, we have adopted this method.

In fact, the Black Death belongs to the spread of plague virus. Fleas suck the blood of mice with germs and then bite people, which is the way to spread diseases.

/kloc-In the middle of the 0/4th century, the Black Death swept across Europe, with a death toll of about 50 million, accounting for 1/3 of the total population in Europe. However, the death toll of the whole European battlefield in World War II only accounted for 5% of the total number of people in Europe, which shows the seriousness of the Black Death.

The source of the Black Death was in Central Asia. The European Crusaders brought the virus to Europe in 1347, and they landed from Messina. The virus began to wreak havoc in Italy, then spread to France, Germany and Britain, and occupied the whole of Russia in 1353.

Wherever the Black Death went, there were bodies everywhere.

Florence, the densely populated commercial and cultural center of Italy, became the hardest hit area.

According to Boccaccio, the author of the Renaissance writer decameron, he was in Florence and witnessed the whole process of Florence from heaven to hell.

At that time, the number of people infected with the Black Death accounted for 80% of the whole city, and people in the streets often suddenly fell down and never got up again.

People who stay at home are not safe either. Usually they will die for many days, and the bodies will rot and stink before they are found.

The corpse trucks in the city pulled the corpse out of the city and buried it day and night.

The bustling city was empty, and it was simply a ghost town.

As long as there is an epidemic area where the Black Death broke out, people write a big white P on the wall, and the whole city is full of scary P.

Yersinia pestis, the pathogen of plague, was not discovered until 1894, but in the14th century, the medical level at that time was very poor, and people could only prevent the spread of the disease through isolation.

At that time, Venice stipulated that the crew of ships from epidemic areas must be isolated for 40 days before getting off the ship. But this can't stop mice from bringing bacteria to Venice. Wherever the Black Death went, people who were easily infected died quickly and were eliminated, while those who were not easily infected with the virus survived. Those who survived the infection also gained immunity.

The anti-infection rate of human beings to this virus is constantly improving, and the Black Death is slowly withdrawing from the historical stage. At that time, European countries, cities and communities participated in the adoption of a very strict isolation system, which also effectively controlled the spread of the Black Death.