THE BUBONIC PLAGUE Can a single infested rat change the entire course of history? In Shakespeare's time, it changed almost everyone's life. Shakespeare was very affected by the bubonic plague caused by rats. Shakespeare had three sisters and a brother who were killed by this deadly disease. His only son was also killed by the bubonic plague. Many cinemas have been closed due to fears of illness. Before Shakespeare was born, the plague epidemic of 1563 killed more than 80,000 people in England. London alone has 20,000 deaths. London was dirty during this whole epidemic and there was no sewage system. All sewage was dumped into the River Thames (Alchin 1). The Elizabethan era was a difficult time for everyone due to the fear of this terrible disease. The bubonic plague ravaged the Elizabethan era and brought awareness to this type of destruction for earlier and later types of plagues. The bubonic plague was part of the Black Death. The Black Death began in Central Asia in the mid-1300s and spread to Europe on arriving trade ships (“Plague” 506). On his journey through Europe, he ended up in England during the 1600s. The bubonic plague began during the winter of 1664-1665, when England was at war with Holland. The plague began in the poor and overcrowded parish of St. Giles and from there it moved up the social tower (Cowie 17). People were so afraid of the plague that they never went out and when they did go out, they hurried up and did what they had to do (Cowie 19). During the Black Death, nearly 20 to 30 million people died (“Plague” 506). There are many symptoms of the Black Death and Bubonic Plague. A symptom of the Black Death was middle of paper......in the 1980s, no one really knows how AIDS started. They have evidence of a man who lived in Congo who had the disease in 1959, and the only reason they knew he had it was because a blood sample was taken from him (Guilfoile 25 ). It was largely ignored when it started spreading, and then people started raising awareness and wanting to create a cure. HIV came from chimpanzees, because when the natives slaughtered them and they had a cut on their hand, the blood from the chimpanzee would enter the cut people and go into their blood. It probably came from the chimpanzees of Cameroon and among them it is called SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus). Since the 1980s, people have been trying to find a cure for this deadly disease. It's not entirely clear what type of immune response blocks people from infection..