[Daffynition]

So boyz ... you're off the hook for now.

[Tax-chick]

Well, maybe. I’d want to see a lot more evidence than this.

Some historians or epidemiologists have suggested that the people were so dirty they were supporting fleas that usually lived on rodents, or that the exterior temperature was irrelevant, since the people and rodents lived indoors.

Others have suggested a strain of disease that could be carried by human-hosted fleas.

Others say the evidence indicates an air- or droplet-transmitted strain in conjunction with the flea-carried strain.

[NonValueAdded]

too cold during winter in Britain for this to happen

Was it so back then or might that have been during a warming period? And while it may have been too cold even in the house for fleas to breed on pets and vermin, hygiene was not high on the list of traits of those ancestors. I'm sure humans carried enough fleas and kept themselves warm enough for them to breed. I suspect that once the disease had a foothold, humans were fully capable of doing the rats' work to spread it. Heck, if the court met on an extraoridnarily frequent basis, there's your vector!!! The unusually chummy folk ensured the spread!

[RightWhale]

Bubonic Plague is native to America, which is where it came from during pre-Columbian trade.

[Old_Mil]

Plague is an infectious disease that affects animals and humans. It is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. This bacterium is found in rodents and their fleas and occurs in many areas of the world, including the United States.

Y. pestis is easily destroyed by sunlight and drying. Even so, when released into air, the bacterium will survive for up to one hour, although this could vary depending on conditions.

Pneumonic plague occurs when Y. pestis infects the lungs. This type of plague can spread from person to person through the air. Transmission can take place if someone breathes in aerosolized bacteria, which could happen in a bioterrorist attack. Pneumonic plague is also spread by breathing in Y. pestis suspended in respiratory droplets from a person (or animal) with pneumonic plague. Becoming infected in this way usually requires direct and close contact with the ill person or animal. Pneumonic plague may also occur if a person with bubonic or septicemic plague is untreated and the bacteria spread to the lungs.

Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague. This occurs when an infected flea bites a person or when materials contaminated with Y. pestis enter through a break in a person's skin. Patients develop swollen, tender lymph glands (called buboes) and fever, headache, chills, and weakness. Bubonic plague does not spread from person to person.

Septicemic plague occurs when plague bacteria multiply in the blood. It can be a complication of pneumonic or bubonic plague or it can occur by itself. When it occurs alone, it is caused in the same ways as bubonic plague; however, buboes do not develop. Patients have fever, chills, prostration, abdominal pain, shock, and bleeding into skin and other organs. Septicemic plague does not spread from person to person.

[shekkian]

It was spread by one infected traveler who was warned by his doctor not to travel, and wasn’t quarantined.

[Silly]

Sorry, I thought this thread was about the Rose Law Firm records.

[VOA]

bump

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks lurker.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[djf]

But...

the documents were LOST!

??????

FOUND documents might tell us something, but LOST documents can tell us nothing!

Pesky rodents!

/s

[Pelham]

The noble and unfairly maligned rattus rattus gets a reprieve after 7 centuries.

[YOUGOTIT]

Was it not during this period that global warming was in effect? So the winter would not have been cold enough to defer the fleas and rats, but of course global warming is just now happening for the first time in history so that is not possible is it?

[Dustbunny]

Are they saying that fleas living on warm bodies in the winter in England do not breed because it is too cold?

Is this another case of junk science?

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Experts now believe that the Black Death is more likely to have been a viral infection, similar to haemorrhagic fever or ebola, that spread from person to person.

What experts? I never heard that. Where are they? What do they say? What have they published?

[kalee]

I can’t get the link to work. :(