Leprosy & The black death

Question 1

What is the difference between a Chronic and an Acute disease?

Answer 1

Chronic: stays with you for life, slowly contageous
Acute: contagious, but you either recover or die immediately

Question 2

What is Leprosy?

Answer 2

most prominent disease in medieval culture before the black death, it was unusual by the 1500s
a chronic disease caused by the mycobacterium Leprae pathogen that is slowly contagious
symptoms are cellular deformity of nerves and tissues and gradual disfiguration

It was also known as Hansen’s disease

3d Laturn council: priests deemed you as unclean, then cast you out of society

Question 3

what were leprosariums?

Answer 3

places where lepers lived together outside of the city

people traded alms for prayer, thought that lepers were closer to god in purgatory

Question 4

Black death in Pistoia, France

Answer 4

they handled the disease well, only 25% of people died because they maintained order
restricted trade and travel

Question 5

Black death in Perpignan, France

Answer 5

stats were kept about the mortality of the plague
legal documents started to pop up showing that the demand for work was rising.

Question 6

Black death in Siena Italy

Answer 6

all Economic and political activity Ceased
shops, trade, and factories were shut down

Question 7

morbidity vs morality

Answer 7

morbidity: Number of people infected

morality: number of people who died

Question 8

Black death in Florence, Italy

Answer 8

was the worst place of all
Boccacio’s fictional book’ the Decameron includes symptoms and details about the disease

the plague moved through twice, in winter 1347 and spring 1348 killing 3/4 of people each time

Question 9

the black death origin and name

Answer 9

Also known as the plague of pestilence
occurred in 1347-1353 CE
broke out of Asia, then spread to Europe via trade

Question 10

how did the Medieval people understand this pandemic?

Answer 10

they looked at it as a sign of God’s wrath and anger to all of civilization
a collective punishment

Question 11

2 ways that sickness spreads

Answer 11

Environment:
bad air, water, food, contamination

Contagion:
can be caught from other people and animals

Question 12

Galens teachings about the disease

Answer 12

in his university, he taught that God caused hot, moist air to go directly into the lungs, causing blood disturbance

Question 13

plague doctors:

Answer 13

reflected the attempts to fix the plague

put good smelling things in the beak of their mask to ward off the disease
the idea that smells caused the spread of disease

Question 14

3 sources of bad air

Answer 14

1. The Heavens - stars, planets, the moon, comets
2. plutonic - volcanoes and earthquakes
3. supernatural - angels, demons, witches

Question 15

What did the first quarintine look like?

Answer 15

introduced in 1377 in Dubrovnik, ships weren’t allowed to come to shore before 4 weeks of isolation
the Marsilles Quarintine of ships helped end the 2nd wave of black death n 1720

Question 16

What was the black death?

Answer 16

a pathogen by the name of Yersinia pestis

Alexandre Yersin discovered that fleas caused the plague on rats

morbidity rate: 60-80%
Morality rate: 30-50%
disease vector: a carrier of a disease

Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a fictional story, ‘The Decameron’ (1353), about people who escape the black death

Question 17

3 forms of plague

Answer 17

Bubonic: - shows swellings in the groin and armpits
spread by fleas on rats
no immunity

Pneumonic: - infects the lungs and spreads by contaminated saliva among humans

Septicemic: infects the blood, spread between humans

Question 18

what is Pesis Secunda

Answer 18

another wave of the bubonic plague that only killed children, because the adults had built up immunity to it

Question 19

Plague of the ottoman empire

Answer 19

in turkey, the dominant disease was the Bubonic plague
but a public healthcare system was developed promoting cleanliness and hygiene in Istambul especially

Question 20

Familial Mediterranean Fever

Answer 20

a genetic disease that provided protection/ resistance from Yersinia pestis
occurred in the Ottoman empire

Question 21

What are some changes the economy faced due to the black death?

Answer 21

land was cheap to buy, but fewer workers were there to farm it
landlords lost power while the peasant’s lives improved
land use shifted from arable to pasture because it was more efficient
the authority of the church was lost because they said they could solve the disease

Question 22

When was the middle ages?

Answer 22

300-800 CE to 1350-1550

Question 23

the Great famine

Answer 23

1315
- population growth but no economic growth
-manorial records- study of harvests, daily events
death from starvation
acres of land was abandoned

Question 24

Leprosy + religion

Answer 24

it was viewed as moral pollution; they were unclean

Disease became associated with sin, immorality and divine punishment
they were associated as sexual wrongdoers

Question 25

Healing leprosy

Answer 25

priests worked with physicians to heal lepers, by confession

leprosy was an imbalance of black bile and was caused by an imbalance of diet and fornication

Question 26

Scrofula

Answer 26

it was a type of tuberculosis not affect the lungs

symptoms of blotches and swollen lymph nodes

it was healed by the royal touch, where the king would be known to heal the disease, so the sick would go to him and be healed.

Question 27

Ancient India Humors

Answer 27

Ayruveda: only had 3 humors

Wind
Fire/Bile
Phlegm

Question 28

Who was blamed for the Plague?

Answer 28

Lepers - they had immunity so people thought they caused it

Jews - they poisoned food and water

There was an idea that death was always knocking on the door, the idea of dying was normalized