Plague has been around for a long time and continues to be a human issue. The plague came in 3 waves over society by the Justinian plague, the black death, and the modern plague. The plague was spread through humans incidentally as the plague was carried by fleas and would be hosted on rats. However, when the rats died the fleas needed a new host and found the human. The societal factors that may have contributed was close living to each other, living with animals, and not disposing of waste properly. Some factors that may have enhanced the virulence of the epidemic are the temperature changes drastically therefore destroying crops causing hunger and starvation. Also, the people lived so close together they were breathing down each other’s necks causing spread of bacteria easy.
The societal response to the deadly epidemic was to find someone to blame or a reason for why this was happening as well as fear. The people at first believed the plague could be due to the alignment of the planets as they had aligned in a strange pattern. Another theory was that a vapor came over and poisoned everyone. A popular theory was that it was a curse from God for the sins they had committed such as gambling, prostitution, and accepting Jews into their communities. All of the people feared for their lives as they watched death keep taking lives of the people they held close to them. The people attempted to decrease the severity of the epidemic by quarantining places and putting people in isolation. They would get rid of the diseased bodies by burial or fire. Some people would even just flee to places that were secluded so they had less chance of contracting the plague.
The overall effects on society were drastic. The people blamed the Jews for the plague so they began to kill them all off. The people made them confess from torture that they were spreading the disease and them they beat or burned them alive to rid them. The church began to lose control and support of the people as people began to take religion into their own hands. People began to recreate Christ’s path of suffering by whipping themselves as they believed inflicted pain would make God save them from the plague. Medicine was not very advanced, but the doctor did come up with some remedies that may have helped to reduce symptoms. The social order changed drastically as there weren’t enough people to hold up the higher classes estates and fields, the high class people had to do their own work. Also, the people that once could not afford land since there was over population was no longer an issue with the mass population loss. The previous poor people who worked on the estates now had their own land. All this land with low people meant new crops could be grown which led to an excess of food and more nutrition. This led to a healthier society which means less likely to contract disease.
How the plague is contracted in the US is from bites of infected fleas, touching infected animals like cats, dogs, rats, rabbits, etc and inhaling droplets from the cough of an infected animal/person. There are many protocols people can use to prevent plague. To protect yourself and family you can eliminate nesting area for rodents around your home as well as avoiding touching dead animals. Another way is to wear gloves if handling sick animal, report sick animals to local health departments, do not let pets sleep with you, and to use insect repellent containing DEET. To protect your pets treat them for fleas often, keep food safe tight, take sick pets to vet immediately, and do not allow them to hunt/play with small rodents. Madagascar’s social and cultural factors are involved in the plague’s resurgence here after 2009. It generally erupts in the rainy season. Some of these factors are the local customs and a broken health care system. The culture has the people bathe the body and return it to the person’s birthplace, but this spreads the disease. Also, the health care workers have such a responsibility to find everyone in contact with a diseased person which is hard to track down as this disease is very transmissible. This is the plague of yesterday and today and the effects it has caused and will continue to cause.
HR: notes, powerpoints, movie, articles given