What it takes to survive a Plague..

First of all, what is a plague? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes a plague to be a few things, one option says a plague is an infectious, epidemic disease caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, characterized by fever, chills, and prostration, transmitted to humans from rats by means of the bites of fleas. Another says it is an epidemic disease that causes high mortality; pestilence. And another one says it is any widespread affliction, calamity, or evil, especially one regarded as a direct punishment by God.

So out of all of these, which one best describes a plague? In a way, all of them do. A plague is basically and essentially a disease outbreak that spreads into an epidemic that later affects a larger population. So in other words, it is a disease that is widespread. But how do diseases come about? How do humans get them? How and why did the Bubonic Plague spread so quickly? Disease is usually one of the symptoms of an unbalanced relationship between humans and their environment.  Many of the disease outbreaks are a result of a change in the manner in which humans use the environment and how they treat it. This particular disease was spread by black rats that carried the disease through the fleas that lived on them. Rats were attracted to the high levels of uncleanliness that the European nations/ societies had during that time. they were transported from one place to another through merchandise ships and the disease itself was passed from one human to another human through the high levels of interaction made available by the trade and transportation routes all through Europe and Asia.

The spread of the plague had many contributing factors. One such was the increase in amount of untended garbage that attracted rats. Another was the usage of thatching on the roofs of English homes that specifically attracted the black rats that carried the fleas that carried the disease. Another is also the mobilization of people that was caused by the knowledge of the plague, they carried it with them to black death-free areas, sometimes having it and not knowing they had it until they were in their last moments.

I think that a few key things that should have been done to prevent further spread of the plague should have been to prohibit the mobilization of people because they were who spread it the most. The spread of this plague could have been completely avoided if only people would have known how to take good care of their environments and how to relate with their areas so that a strong connection would exist. Materials that attracted black rats, such as the thatching in England should have been removed immediately after the knowledge of the plague.

There is a proverb that says when bad things begin to happen; they usually get worse before they get better. This was exactly what happened with the black plague, more than half the population had to die out before things fell back into balance. And even then a few bad things continued happening because governments needed to find who to blame it on.