Imagine a time where an encounter with a rat on the street could mean that you were going to die within hours to days after seeing that rat. This nightmare was reality multiple times throughout our history and it was called plague but it's more widely known as Black Death and it killed hundreds of millions of people.
First would come the rat encounter whether you saw them or not, then would come the symptoms which included fever, chills, and the worst part: large black boils that caused so much pain they'd probably make you wish you were dead. Even if it wasn't what you were wishing for however you'd probably die within hours after showing the first side affects.
As you can imagine life during these pandemics was absolutely terrible. Only the rich could afford doctors which could hardly ever actually help but if you were going to live you probably needed a doctor but if you had no money you were screwed. Besides the disease, starvation was something else you'd likely die of during the outbreak because most people relied on others for food but when those people died, not many had food.
The plague swept through large cities killing thousands in just mere days but the big question many scientists and doctors are wondering is, will a pandemic this big ever happen again? The answer to that isn't known for sure but if a pandemic does happen again it likely won't be concerning plague as many cases of plague are reported every year.
Although many cases of plague are reported yearly no outbreaks of plague really happen anymore due to our understanding of how these diseases spread and we now know how to quarantine and contain the plague and other diseases like it. And if you're scared that you'll get plague don't worry because only about 800 people were reported with plague worldwide last year so the chances of getting it are slim.
I think it's fair to say that the plague had it's glory days where it ruled the world but in the modern world it's nothing. As shown throughout history humans slowly overcame and learned how to eliminate the threat once or for all. Or so we hope.
Credits:
Created with images by Katie Tegtmeyer - "untitled image" • Clewn - "refugee camp" • Mojpe - "woman blow blowing" • mtshaw - "Still Empty" • PublicDomainPictures - "biology research laboratory" • NRCgov - "Nuclear Plant Security - Radiation Protection Sign"