The Justinian Plague: Deadly Bacterial Infection

- The Justinian Plague Abstract Plague is a serious deadly bacterial infection that is also identified as the black plague. A bacteria strain identified as Yernisia Pestis causes the plague. The bacterium inhabits in animals all over the world and is transmitted to human through fleas. Black death has both long-term and short term effects on the human population globally. The effects include a series of political, economic, religious, biological and social upheavals which had significant effects on world history and especially European history. The Black Death has a historical sporadic effect in Europe for a couple of centuries though by 1352 it loosened its grip. Europe population was decimated and the economy was hit hard. In essence, the labor force was destroyed, buildings crumbled and farms were abandoned. The labor price hiked as there was a shortage of workers and the costs of goods rise. The Black Death also set modern medicine technologies stage and spurred changes in the hospital and public health regulation. Due to challenges and frustrations posed by Black Death educators made an initiative to emphasize on physical science and clinical medicines to replace superstition and astrology diagnosis that revolved around the plague The Justinian Plague The Roman Empire had been blooming in the 6th century flourishing more when the Byzantine Emperor Justinian entered the picture and found peace with the Persian Empire. Within his reign, the Byzantine Empire spread through North Africa and the Italian Peninsula. While the military made significant advances in neighboring territories, the worst outbreak of the plague took over the area. Known as the Plague of Justinian it spread over a period of 225 years starting around 541 CE until 750 CE. The plague, although originated from the eastern and western banks of the Nile river, affected Constantinople, spreading north to Alexandria and to Palestine in the east. The plague was one the deadliest outbreaks causing approximately 25 to 50 million people, nearly half of the population of Europe, within two recurrences. The diseases and illness combined with extreme weather conditions and warfare affected the population fatally (Horgan, 2014). According to that period’s geographical events recorder, many parts of the Byzantine Empire was affected by extreme and unusual weather conditions resulting in decreased sunshine, prolonged cold, and well-below-average temperatures. Not only did the weather conditions affected the crops but also caused the migration of people from one area to another spreading the epidemic even more. The Justinian Plague was caused by the Yersinia Pestis bacteria confirmed by DNA tests of skeletal remains from the Early Medieval Cemetery (Harbeck et al., 2013). It has been studied repeatedly across centuries, determining its DNA and mode of action. It is a gram-negative coccobacillus bacteria able to cause three types of epidemics; pneumonic, septicemic and bubonic. The Justinian plague was bubonic in nature whose symptoms start to emerge after seven days of exposure to the bacteria. The symptoms associated with the bubonic nature of the plague are flu-like feeling developing into fever, headaches, vomiting and swollen/painful lymph nodes. According to historians, th...