Traditional methods of treating disease such as blood-letting, purging with laxatives, changing the diet of the patient, herbal remedies etc., were completely ineffective against the disease. disease had been passed on to people by “mice and animals” that normally “lived under the earth”.

Common diseases were dysentery, malaria, diphtheria, flu, typhoid, smallpox and leprosy. Most of these are now rare in Britain, but some diseases, like cancer and heart disease, are more common in modern times than they were in the Middle Ages.

Bad hygiene and lack of proper sewage methods were a definite factor of the Black Death, without a doubt. However, London for example was a crowded, bustling city with a population of around 70,000. The sanitation in London was extremely poor and living conditions were filthy….

A combination of both spiritual and natural healing was used to treat the sick. Herbal remedies, known as Herbals, along with prayer and other religious rituals were used in treatment by the monks and nuns of the monasteries.

Unlike Europe’s disastrous bubonic plague epidemic, the plague is now curable in most cases. It can successfully be treated with antibiotics, and according to the CDC , treatment has lowered mortality rates to approximately 11 percent. The antibiotics work best if given within 24 hours of the first symptoms….

You can also catch the plague directly from infected animals or people. Thanks to treatment and prevention, the plague is rare now. Only a few thousand people around the world get it each year. Most of the cases are in Africa (especially the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar), India, and Peru….

Mortality depends on the type of plague: Bubonic plague is fatal in about 50-70% of untreated cases, but perhaps 10-15% when treated. Septicaemic plague is almost 100% fatal, and perhaps 40% with treatment. Pneumonic plague is 100% fatal, regardless of treatment.

Infectious diseases most often cited as causes of the plague include influenza, epidemic typhus, typhoid fever, bubonic plague, smallpox, and measles.

Though epidemic typhus was responsible for millions of deaths in previous centuries, it is now considered a rare disease. Occasionally, cases continue to occur, in areas where extreme overcrowding is common and body lice can travel from one person to another.

Typhus, series of acute infectious diseases that appear with a sudden onset of headache, chills, fever, and general pains, proceed on the third to fifth day with a rash and toxemia (toxic substances in the blood), and terminate after two to three weeks….

The rash may cover the entire body except the palms of the hands and the bottoms of the feet. Patients may develop additional symptoms of bleeding into the skin (petechiae), delirium, stupor, hypotension, and shock, which can be life threatening.

Other symptoms of scrub typhus include: Confusion or other mental impairment. A dark scab on the area where the chigger bit you. Swollen lymph nodes….

Signs and symptoms may include:

• Fever and chills.
• Body aches and muscle pain.
• Loss of appetite.
• Nausea.
• Vomiting.
• Stomach pain.
• Cough.
• Rash (typically occurs around day 5 of illness)

Both diseases are infections, but they’re caused by different types of bacteria that are spread in different ways. The kind of typhus we tend to see in the U.S. is spread by fleas that catch the disease from rats and possums. Typhoid fever is spread through food that’s come into contact with fecal bacteria….