In medieval times, the Black Death was more than just a thorn in the lion's side. At that time, few people reached what is now our national life expectancy. The success rate of the Black Death still haunts us today. The Black Death, if it returned today with a drug-resistant strain, could easily devastate the world and everyone who lives in it. It's likely that it would be similar to Stephen King's The Stand... except there wouldn't be any Hollywood to make a movie about it, or writers to make a book about it for at least several years. The Black Death could easily be considered the worst disease to ever strike humanity. The plague hit Europe and the rest of the world hard three times. The Black Death still exists today, although it is not as deadly as it once was due to the miracles of modern medicine. “Between 1900 and 2010, 999 confirmed or probable cases of human plague occurred in the United States” (CDC). Yes, it still exists, even in the United States. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayPlague in history has devastated countries for long periods of time. “The Black Death is thought to have originated on the arid plains of Central Asia, where it then traveled along the Silk Road to Crimea in 1346” (BBC), the Silk Road being the ancient version of the highway. The Silk Road carried everything from silk and gold to diseases like the plague, usually carried by rats that sneaked into the cargo being transferred. The three main outbreaks of the plague occurred in the 6th and 7th centuries in Constantinople, then in the 1300s in Europe, ending the last major outbreak in Asia and India in the late 1800s. , especially because of the multiplicity of recurrences, it's almost like the flu on steroids... except that, fortunately, it doesn't tend to come back every year. Due to the strength of the Black Death, “AIDS resistance” (Damen) was observed among European populations. Europe never seemed to get a break: by the beginning of the 19th century, the threat of plague had diminished, but it was quickly replaced by a new disease (CBC). Cholera quickly became the next major cause of death in Europe, but back to the Black Death. When the Black Death hit Europe in the 1300s, it first spread across Italy and then quickly spread deep into Europe. From the spread comes the real infection. “They say the plague takes three forms” (Horrox), all horrible. One route infects your lungs and ultimately makes breathing impossible. If anyone was unlucky enough to get this, they would die in less than two days. The second form begins mainly in the armpits and spreads. The third (regardless of gender) mainly spreads around the genital area of ​​the body and keeps killing you. Some key symptoms of the plague give rise to its name, particularly the fact that an infected person's skin begins to turn black from gangrene. Gangrene is a disease that occurs when tissues become infected and improperly treated. The skin then turns various shades of green, until it is completely dead and black. Another common symptom is buboes. Buboes are similar to pimples, but they are hundreds of times larger and less easy to open, although they ooze pus and blood when opened. Often, if an infected person's buboes began to fade, they would survive the plague, although this was rare. “.