Plague and Pestilence - Past and Present

In 2014, I wrote a blog post about Ireland’s ringforts. Some scholars believe that these ancient sites may owe their origin to changes in the environment.  It is possible that periods of poor weather may have led to poor harvests, shortages of food, famine, lowering of resistance to disease and vulnerability to widespread pestilences. When I wrote this piece, little did I think that the world would face, in just a few short years, its greatest pandemic in a century known as coronavirus or Covid19.

Justinian Plague

Justinian Plague - 541 AD

The first historic plague (the Justinian, named after the emperor who was infected by it) was an outbreak of bubonic plague, which came to Ireland in AD 544 and decimated the people over several years. Several other pestilences are recorded from the mid-500s. Another severe outbreak of plague hit Ireland in 664. These may have played a part in the sudden desire of those who survived and could afford to do so, to secure themselves in ringforts.  (Lynne, C., Archaeology Ireland, Winter 2005). Experience of the first plague may have shown that small isolated communities had a better chance of avoiding infection.

Further outbreaks over the next two centuries eventually killed about 50 million people, 26 percent of the world population. It is believed to be the first significant appearance of the bubonic plague. Plague and pestilence, of course, have been part of the human experience going back to pre-historic times. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, smallpox and others first appeared 10,000 years ago during the hunter-gatherer period. As our ancestors built cities, forged trade routes and waged war, pandemics became more common. The website www.history.com is a good source of information on the history of plagues.

The Black Death

Black Death 

The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence, Great Bubonic Plague, the Great Plague or the Plague, or less commonly the Great Mortality or the Black Plague, was the most devastating pandemic recorded in human history. This pandemic resulted in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. The bacterium Yersinia pestis, is believed to have been the cause.

The plague appeared in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea berthed at the Sicilian port of Messina. Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill. Healthy people did all they could to avoid the sick. Doctors refused to see patients; priests refused to administer last rites; and shopkeepers closed their stores.

In 1348, soon after the plague arrived in cities like Venice and Milan, city officials put emergency public health measures in place that foreshadowed today’s best practices of social distancing and disinfecting surfaces. The Black Death epidemic had come to an end by the early 1350s, but the plague reappeared every few generations for centuries. Modern sanitation and public-health practices have greatly diminished the impact of the disease but have not eliminated it. Although antibiotics are available to treat the Black Death, according to The World Health Organization, there are still 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year.

Significance of a 40-Day 'Quarantino'

The English word “quarantine” is a direct descendent of quarantino, the Italian word for a 40-day period. Health officials may have prescribed a 40-day quarantine because the number had great symbolic and religious significance to medieval Christians.

By the early 1500s, England enacted the first laws to separate and isolate the sick. Homes stricken by plague were marked with a bale of hay strung to a pole outside. If you had infected family members, you had to carry a white pole when you went out in public.

The Great Plague of London -1665

In 1665, another devastating outbreak of the bubonic plague led to the deaths of 20 percent of London’s population. As human death tolls mounted and mass graves appeared, hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs were slaughtered as the possible cause and the disease spread through ports along the Thames. The Great Plague was the last and one of the worst of the centuries-long outbreaks, killing 100,000 Londoners in just seven months.

Spanish Flu - 1918

The avian-borne Spanish flu was a deadly influenza pandemic lasting from January 1918 to December 1920 which resulted in 50 – 100 million deaths worldwide.  It was first observed in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia, before quickly spreading around the world. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain.

Asian flu -1957

Starting in Hong Kong in 1957 and spreading throughout China and then into the United States, the Asian flu became widespread in England where, over six months, 14,000 people died. A second wave followed in early 1958, causing an estimated total of about 1.1 million deaths globally. A vaccine was developed, effectively containing the pandemic.

HIV/AIDS - 1981

First identified in 1981, AIDS destroys a person’s immune system, resulting in eventual death by diseases that the body would usually fight off. AIDS was first observed in American gay communities but is believed to have developed from a chimpanzee virus from West Africa in the 1920s. Treatments have been developed to slow the progress of the disease, but 35 million people worldwide have died of AIDS since its discovery, and a cure is yet to be found.

 SARS - 2003

In 2003, after several months of cases, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is believed to have started with bats, spread to cats and then to humans in China, followed by 26 other countries. The disease infected 8,096 people and resulted in 774 deaths. Quarantine efforts proved effective and by July, the virus was contained and hasn’t reappeared since.

Coronavirus - COVID-19

COVID-19 - 2019

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the COVID-19 virus was officially a pandemic after spreading to 114 countries in three months. By the end of March, over 823,566 people had been infected and the global death toll reached 40,643. In Britain, the total number of deaths reached 1,789. COVID-19 is caused by a novel coronavirus, the family of viruses that includes the common flu and SARS. Symptoms include respiratory problems, fever and cough, and can lead to pneumonia and death.

The first reported case in China appeared November 17, 2019, in the Hubei Province, but went unrecognized. Eight more cases of this still unidentified virus appeared in December.  Without a vaccine available, the virus spread beyond Chinese borders and by mid-March, it had spread globally to more than 163 countries. 
For further information see:
https://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.com/2014/10/irelands-ringforts-not-just-home-for.html

https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/pandemics-timeline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kScxc9DPrnY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFUQCWghjWc