The Justinian Plague: The Yersinia Pestis Bacteria

The Justinian Plague Author’s Name Institutional Affiliation 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 542 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, the plague was spread by a black rat (Rattus rattus) which acted as a carrier for the Yersinia Pestis bacteria. While tributes and trades were being made to and from Constantinople, rats populated the trade ships infecting grain ships and carts. Commodities such as paper, oil, salves, and ivory were transported along with the infected rats to different countries spreading the plague even more. The storage facilities for grain acted as the ideal breeding ground for fleas and rats (Wagner et al., 2014). Those rats, though unable to travel more than 200 miles from their birth site, were still carried to faraway lands by the grain carts. Once the bacteria is transmitted into the human body through dog, rat, and fleabites, this specific virus had a complete mode of action by which it affects the host’s immune system (Li & Yang, 2008). The gram-negative bacteria, also known as the category A agent of bioterrorism, enters the body and encounters polymorphonuclear leukocytes and macrophages at the site of the invasion. While they may mostly be neutrophils, the bacteria attacks macrophages and starts to reside in them. It then destroys the host’s immune system and also influen...