The History of the Black Death

Yersinia pestis - Fluorescence antibody positivity is seen as bright, intense green staining around the bacterial cell

(9) The characteristic time-course of plague epidemics corresponds exactly with those of a directly infectious disease, whereas deaths in an outbreak of bubonic plague (as would be expected) are haphazard and unpredictable.

Consequences

Once it is accepted that bubonic plague was not responsible for the epidemics that rampaged through Europe from 1347 to 1670, all sorts of things begin to fall into place. With new 20/20 vision we can see how stories have been embellished while many facts (like the 40-day quarantine) have been completely ignored.

We are left with many questions. What was this mysterious and terrible disease? Why did it suddenly appear in 1347? Where had it come from? Why did it persist for three centuries after the Black Death had burnt itself out after its three-year reign of terror?

Even more pertinently for us today, could it reappear and wipe out the human race? We shall answer these questions in Part 2 of our article here - "The Black Death - Modern Nightmare?"

Get the History Channel’s definitive DVD on the subject – ‘Scourge of the Black Death’

Or else you can read 20 Black Death Plague Facts from the book

For more information:

...on pandemics download the TV Documentary 'The Flu Time Bomb'
http://www.firstscience.com/home/firstscience.tv/flu-time-bomb_5.html