In the air, "Be healthy with plague doctor": infectious hugs

Diseases, hunger, destruction, pain and suffering are an integral part of life for many centuries. Many infectious diseases can mow down the entire nation. Perhaps a number of people who died from various diseases, not carried away, even war. But what about the ancient people? They did not have to get used to all this.

Microbes, which served as a catalyst for various diseases have been in water, food and the environment in principle. Infection might carry a certain little group of life of the population, but if people are united in the population, here things were much more serious. All developed into such a terrible word epidemic.

It is called a disease, because of which killed dozens, or even hundreds of people within a locality or geographic region. In that case, if the illness has leaked outside of a settlement, and the outbreak may already be observed in other regions, the epidemic has developed into a pandemic.

Today's article, I decided to devote so much fun, but at the same time scary subject as epidemics and pandemics. I'll tell you about the most terrible cases, which comprehended humanity, taking over a large number of human lives.

1. Black Death

Black Death is considered to be a plague that has deployed its decaying embrace in the eighth thousand three hundred forty year. This "black rider" raced almost half of the globe and carried with a tremendous amount of human lives. The disease manifested itself in the distant Middle Ages.

"The Black Rider" started its journey with the most poor and dirty quarters, while his "court servants" in the form of rats and mice have not penetrated, so to speak, the upper strata of the population. Disease only took two years to carry off almost fifty million souls. Plague crept into every crevice and did not leave behind a life. The city sank into the darkness and silence, but people do not give up hope and still running. But it gave a head start "black rider" because there was no escape from it, and he escaped from the conquered more and more territory.

It is only three and a half years the disease could take in iron shackles, but still weak its manifestations, terrorized European cities until the nineteenth century. Doctors who examined the plague victims could protect themselves special suit, which is impregnated with wax, and on the face, they wore a mask with a long beak. Mask doctor saved from infection, because the beak placed different flavors with a terrible smell, which allegedly helped not infected.

2. Smallpox

Despite the fact that the plague took almost fifty million people, smallpox has been able to surpass its predecessor in many times. In the seventeenth century, in America, there were about one hundred million people, but epidemics that repeatedly swept through the land, managed to reduce the population of the country is literally twenty-five times, leaving a fifteen million survivors in the continent. And they were all quite happy, in fact had the opportunity to start a new life. But again, everything went awry due to the fact that in the New World began to arrive unimaginable crowds of immigrants who brought with them the death of smallpox. During his "reign", smallpox has been able to carry out almost five hundred million human lives.

The end of the eighteenth century was marked by the fact that the doctors could not find a cure for this "beast", but unfortunately, the vaccine did not save people from another outbreak in thousand nine hundred sixty-seventh year. Then smallpox took with almost two million human souls.

The Germans there is even an expression that says love and smallpox can not get around the many side. Perhaps, it is difficult not to agree with them.

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3. The Spanish flu

This new disaster struck at the world in the early twentieth century. People still really could not move away from the horrors of the First World, as they need to again had to go through such a tough test. The Spaniard took over a more than twenty-three million souls just three and a half months, and for the entire period of this terrible disease, died about sixty to one hundred and twenty million inhabitants.

The flu is so much change a person's appearance that it was impossible to tell who is in front of you with a clear certainty. The human body was white, the cheeks were visible black spots, hands and feet were always cold, and his eyes were red because of burst capillaries. Those who managed to survive during this flu, took precisely this form. Many see them as the walking dead.