Or so I understand. The flea-borne plague is less virulent than the airborne type.

-- Mal

Bubonic, Pneumonic and Septicemic.

Maybe it's just my schooling, but I never heard about any fleas. Maybe I assumed as much after studying virology. I get the flu easily (compromised immune system), so I tend to think of airborne transfers perhaps more often than I should.

because there weren't enough cats to kill the rodents & they overpopulated carrying many diseases. Folks wised up & stopped persecuting the kittehs. It could have started with fleas then mutated into an airborne virus.

Who knows?

"It is claimed in popular books and websites that Gregory's condemnation of heretics worshipping Satan in the form of a black cat in his bull Vox in Rama led to a massacre of cats across Europe. It is also claimed that this supposed "cat massacre" worsened the Black Death a century after Gregory's time, because the plague was spread by rats who were unchecked in Europe due to the decline of cat numbers."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_IX#Papacy

"Vilification of black cats

Some historians have claimed that Vox in Rama is the first official church document that condemns the black cat as an incarnation of Satan. In the bull the cat is addressed as “master” and the incarnate devil is half-man half-feline in nature. Engels claims that Vox in Rama was “a death warrant for the [cat], which would be continued to be slaughtered without mercy until the early nineteenth century. It is said that very few all-black cats survive in western Europe as a result."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_in_Rama#Vilification_of_black_cats

I still don't recall fleas, but I do recall the killing of cats because Jewish families tended to keep cats, whereas Christians did not.
Very fascinating study.

There's no need to evolve fully.

I was one of the flea-borne believers. This is new info to me, and interesting. My biggest fear over the past few years is that it would take a pandemic of "Black Death" proportions to get Americans' collective heads out of their asses on health care reform.

but I'm pretty sure that there is already a pandemic of collective head up ass. And that is a pretty sure fire way to catch something nasty.

that causes so many people to waddle around with their heads up their asses.

It's long been known that the flea bite route didn't cause the pneumonic plague that wiped out most of the people in Europe in the fourteenth century.

They all stemmed from either New Mexico or Arizona. I think it was in the late 90s that two Native American young adults died and they possibly tied it to rats in the home. Then there was an older man and his wife vacationing in NYC. I still lived in Jersey at the time and after the anthrax deliveries and 9/11, they thought he might be the carrier of some biological weapon. The only thing is, I can't remember if these were pneumonic or bubonic. Crazy things, these mini critters.

If the disease kills too quickly for the host to spread it, less virulent varieties would spread better than the more lethal varieties.

I believe that is the case to syphilis when it first emerged roughly 500-600 years ago. The initial strain and infections was extremely virulent and then less virulent forms became the norm that we see today.

just like the flu does. Most cases around here are transmitted by cats and dogs that have played with sick or dead animals outdoors.

Unfortunately, the "rats with fleas" nonsense has been hammered into the heads of so many school children that it's a lot harder to kill than yersinia pestis, itself.

The "Great Vowel Shift" occurred right around the same time as the black plague. People learned to keep their mouths more shut when speaking (and the vowels shifted upwards in the mouth) because people became aware that germs were often passed airborne out of people's mouths.

Nice to see some evidence in support of this pet theory.

-Laelth

the physicians of the day wore were also an amazing invention for the time because nobody knew a thing about microbes. Breathing through a wad of fragrant flowers or pine (depending on the season) was almost as effective as the surgical mask is today.

A lot of things shifted as a result of the Black Death in the 1300s, the relationship between labor and aristocracy not the least of them. That there was also a vowel shift is not surprising.

as s/he had already infected everybody s/he had met in the last couple of days. Once they were ill, removing them to the lazaretto was futile since they'd already infected everyone in the household. Add to that the poor had to shop daily for what little food they got, so ill or well, they had to expose themselves to other people at risk in the markets and it spread like wildfire.

The rich stayed quarantined behind thick walls, but even they had to be attended by people in the infection chain among their many servants.

One of the best things they did in some locations was burn the home down around all the people who had died inside it. Otherwise, they knew to burn clothing and bedding. They were unaware the bug stayed alive for hours on furniture and other possessions.

They were smart enough to realize that contact with sick people made them sick in turn. They just had little idea how to cope with the fact.

Those were pretty effective. With the lack of modern medicines, that's about all they could do.

but a dearth of labor to support a somewhat dwindled aristocracy gave surviving labor the best deal they'd had since they'd been taxed and indebted off their own land.

I see they're citing up to a 21 day prodromal stage for Ebola. I hope that isn't the case, that the patient went that long past first exposure only because he'd failed to inhale the virus at that time and was infected later. If the prodromal stage increases from the 8-12 hours it has been, that could spell the end of humanity as it is sorted out now.

The only difference is that this time we'll know what's killing us.

I seem to remember from earlier outbreaks that it could be days, though.

We would stop Ebola if it were to break out, but we would have to resort to draconian quarantines, and they would have a dire effect on the global economy.

it's kinda hard to stop breathing….for a few days - weeks - months - and then start back up again….
Ms. Bigmack

We've delved into history, virology and perhaps even lapses in teaching. Awesome and informative!

Will try to watch it tonight on my laptop.