Posted on 03/29/2008 4:52:00 PM PDT by blam
The chances of surviving the Black Death
Why did some people survive the Black Death, and others succumb? At the time of the plague – which ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, carrying off 50 million people, perhaps half the population – various prophylactics were tried, from the killing of birds, cats and rats to the wearing of leather breeches (protecting the legs from flea bites) and the burning of aromatic spices and herbs.
Now it seems that the best way of avoiding death from the disease was to be fit and healthy. Sharon DeWitte and James Wood of the University of Albany, New York, have examined 490 skeletons from the East Smithfield plague pit in London and found that the Black Death was selective in picking off the already frail. Lesions (damaged bone) associated with earlier episodes of infection, under-nutrition or other forms of physiological stress were present in most of those buried at East Smithfield, where the dead were stacked five deep in the mass graves on a site hurriedly opened on land donated by the Bishop of London.
‘This actually contradicts what many have assumed about the epidemic, says Dr DeWitte. ‘The pattern we observed is of the Black Death targeting the weak, though it did also kill some people who were otherwise healthy. This is consistent with an emerging disease striking a population with no immunity’.
During the plague, physicians wore a beaklike mask which was filled with strongly aromatic herbs and spices to overpower the miasmas or bad air thought to carry the plague. The hat and the long, black overcoat was designed to minimise skin exposure. Exposed skin was also coated in wax or suet to protect against droplet contamination (see illustration).
News article from four days ago.
The U.S. is not prepared for a pandemic. It isn't that we don't have the capability. It is because we are not organized nor have the mindset to deal with it.
This is why health officials are so concerned about an influenza pandemic. The Avian Flu strain, H5N1, is nasty. If it crosses over to become a human virus the world in will be behind the power curve trying to deal with it. That is, unless we prepare to deal with pandemics as well as other disasters.
This type of preparation wouldn't necessarily stop a pandemic's spread so much as slow it and lessen its impact. Then the better technology comes into play to break the pandemic.
The point to remember is preparation. If prepared for disasters, the better technology of our civilization will not be overwhelmed. It will then enable us to make it through the hard times.
Long ago, during the Persian Gulf Tanker War, the Force Surgeon told me something I will never forget. Basically he said that our medical community was encountering diseases endemic to the Gulf Region that they had never dreamed of.
That, coupled with observations of friends (military veterans) struggling with exotic diseases has convinced me that the broad medical community really needs a better method of diagnosis.
Until an instant, foolproof method of diagnosis is developed, we had all better be actively involved in our health & well-being!
I think it was during this period that a princess of England was going to marry a prince of Spain. They were going to meet at a French port controlled at that time by England.
This would have been a giant step uniting the two kingdoms against France. The princess and several of her entourage caught the plague and died in the port. End of power move.
It was also the plague that caused widow's dowry laws. Estates were going to the male heir and some were not supporting the wife/widow and in moat cases their own mother. I believe fewer women got the plague, because they primarily stayed at home. The laws were changed to provided for surviving widows.
One mindset we don't have is a tough one. We won't be able to save everyone. So we need to allocate medicine and resources on those with the best chance of survival. That means scarce vaccines, lung ventilators and emergency rooms have to be allocated PRIOR to the event. Sorry grandma, you don't qualify! A form of triag based upon odds. Good luck with that.
In fact, it lives in the mountains between Bakersfield and the beach.
How ever, once the threat was over, the available resources were divided among fewer, prospering beyond belief people.
there was a boom.
Close the borders.
This wouldn't surprise me. Have always suspected we know less of the plague than we commonly believe.
Well! I guess I can remove that area from my vacation list ;-)
I'm not a doctor but I suspect he probably had tularemia, not the plague. I know about it because my Dad nearly died from it as a result of hunting and skinning jackrabbits. It's very infectious and can be fatal if not identified quickly.
My mother in law told me about spending the summer in a cabin with her friend and their children in order to quarantine themselves from a polio outbreak that was happening in town. Only one person would go to town for supplies, and the husbands were on their own at home.
How many people do you know who would scream about how unfair that is now?
He initially went in the hospital with really bad flu-like symptoms. Treatment for tularemia and plague are the same, but in his case, it just came too late. If I recall, he died the day after entering the hospital. He was confirmed as a plague case (one of five that year in the US, I think).
There were some limited areas in Europe and Britain that either totally avoided the Black Death or had very few infected people die.
No one has yet come up with a convincing explanation for the anomaly
“That means scarce vaccines, lung ventilators and emergency rooms have to be allocated PRIOR to the event.”
Their was an article in the Seattle Times a week or so ago that was discussing how all the emergency rooms were full this winter in the Seattle area. They said with the flu they are typically croweded, but this year was especially bad. Also because of high insurance costs, lack of ER personnel, etc. (Hmmm - they didn’t mention illegals).
Regardless, they were saying how the ER’s were all full and they were sending accident vitims to other hospitals outside the county, etc.
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