The Black Death and Ebola

In the 1300’s a mysterious disease struck Europe, this disease was unknown to the people of Europe which left many people terrified. This mysterious disease spread throughout Europe like a wildfire and between 1347-1375 it infected European cities numerous times and virtually wiped out the European population (Fiero). Similar to this tragic ailment, a mysterious disease erupted in West Africa. In 2014 when this mysterious disease began to spread like the mystic disease in the 1300’s it left many people baffled and scared.

In the 1300’s commercial vessels returning from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian Port of Messina. It was then discovered that many of the sailors onboard were either dead or very ill. The sailors who were ill were covered in black boils that would ooze blood and pus. After the arrival of the ships chaos broke loose over the city because many people were falling victim to this disease. The symptoms of this disease were fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and aching pains. Once the boils and accompanying fever appeared death usually followed within two to three days (Fiero). Although death was inevitable many people did try to cure the black boils and the symptoms, many tried the traditional way of letting their blood run and fumigating with vapors of vinegar which proved to be useless (Fiero). This mysterious disease then got the name of The Black Death due to the black boils that would cover the body of the victims. The Black Death was a new disease and very unknown to the people which made them scared. Along with already being scared, University trained doctors claimed that this malady was new to world history, that doctors and medicine were useless, and that all that could be done was to pray for God’s mercy (Cohn, 2002). With the claim from the doctors that there was no cure and they should pray to god, many people believed that that it was a punishment from God for all their sins of greed, blasphemy, and fornication.

After the first wave of the plague another wave hit and many doctors struggled to find a cure but they were not successful so they came up with another alternative and began prescribing specific cures and preventative measures that consisted of long lists of recipes, herbs, and foods to eat or not eat, ointments to apply to plague swellings, instructions for lancing boils and for which veins to tap when letting blood (Cohn, 2002). While some doctors believed that the plague was brought on by configurations of Saturn and Jupiter many refused to believe that because in those times it was all about religion so therefore it was more believable that it was a punishment from God himself. The economic impact the plague had was disastrous due to the huge percentage of death. There was a shortage of labor in which return created a greater demand for workers. Many of the survivors of the plague had a bargaining chip due to them being able to work and many workers demanded that their status and income be raised. The Black Death brought more than just death it brought economic disaster, psychological pain, and climatic disasters that caused frequent crop failure, and famine (Fiero). With crop failure and famine, the working class revolted in France and England. In 1358, French peasants staged an angry protest that claimed the lives of hundred noblemen. The revolt of the people frightened many landowners and lent an instability to class relationships that hastened the demise of the feudal order (Fiero).

In 2014 there was a case of a small boy from the small village of Guinea who was believed to be bitten by a bat. After this encounter many reports of people in the village who had contact with the child began to fall ill with symptoms of diarrhea, fever, chills, and vomiting. When there were five cases of people with fatal diarrhea, it was then that an official medical alert was issued to the district health officials. Soon after the medical alert the unknown virus made it way into Guinea’s capital of Conakry, after this the Ministry of Health in Guinea issued an alert for an unidentified illness (CDC, 2017). After this alert was allotted many people began to be afraid and began falling victim to this unknown illness. Subsequently after cases of this unknown disease began to rise the Pasteur Institute in France confirmed that the unknown illness was indeed EVD caused by Zaire Ebolavirus (CDC, 2017). After the acknowledgement of Ebola it soon spread to the capital of all three countries and in August 8, 2014, WHO declared the deteriorating situation in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which is designated only for events that had a risk of potential international spread and that would require a coordinated international response to control it. (CDC, 2017). Over this epidemic Ebola began to spread to seven countries: Senegal, Italy, Mali, Nigeria, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States. Many of the countries that were affected by Ebola began to be Ebola free by the following years. The Ebola outbreak claimed 11,325 deaths within its two-year pandemic.

The Black Death and Ebola are similar in many ways. The Black Death originated from rats that had infected fleas although it was unknown in the 1300’s that rats were the cause of this huge outbreak. Identical to the Black Death, Ebola originated from rats that had infected fleas as well. The difference is that the doctors in 2014 confirmed that it originated from the fleas unlike the doctors in 1300’s who did not know and believed it to be Gods punishment. The Black Death hit towns, where the concentration of population and the lack of sanitation made the disease more difficult to contain and like the black death Ebola outbreak hit rural towns where infrastructure was low and where population was high (Fiero). The Black Death and Ebola had very similar symptoms that ranged from vomiting, aching pains, fever, and diarrhea the only difference was that the victims of the black death had black boils that would ooze blood and pus and the sufferers of the Ebola virus did not have the black boils on their body. Unlike the doctors in 1300’s the doctors in 2014 tried the best they could to help the victims of Ebola by providing fluids and electrolytes through infusion, offering oxygen, and using medications to support blood pressure (CDC, 2017). Although times were very different in 1300’s and doctors knew very little it seemed as they made no effort and they were scared of the reality until the 2nd and 3rd wave of the plague hit which then encouraged many doctors to try different ways to cure the fallen. Unlike in Europe where there were no administrators or protocols put into place to try to contain the plague there was protocols put into place in West Africa to try to contain Ebola which failed. Both the Black Death and Ebola spread to several countries and infected many people. Unlike the Black Death who claimed 50 million people or 60 percent of Europe’s population, Ebola claimed 11,315 lives.

Although the Black Death and Ebola happened hundred of centuries apart from each other it is proven that it was one of the most terrible tragedies. Both Ebola and the Black Death had a huge impact on the world, it caused for people to panic and stay on edge. The death tolls on both were very high and unlike Ebola the black death could’ve been cured if only the doctors were more informed of this disease. The Black Death will always be known as the start of the fallen times. Both these diseases were caused by people not knowing what to do and panicking and trying to flee but instead of fleeing all they did was condemn more people to these terrible diseases. Both these diseases will forever live on in history and they will always be compared on their similarities and differences.

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