Dr. Eleanor Janega

There's this tendency to relate to history as though it is a process by which things become better and better and better.

So oftentimes people look at the current state of the world or indeed like the current state of the world at a particular time and they'll say, oh, well, if you go further back, it must have therefore been worse.

There were sort of periodic outbreaks of bubonic plagues before the 14th century.

So, for example, there was a big outbreak of it that we call the Justinian Plague that happened in the 5th century, where bubonic plague comes up.

We've tested the bones.

That's definitely bubonic plague.

But something happens with the Yersinia pestis bacteria where it mutates and becomes much, much, much more virulent and much more communicable.

It's the one germ that I know how to say, which is a bacteria called Yersinia pestis.

And this is the version of the plague that you may have heard of.

You and I probably know it and love it as the Black Death or the Plague.

The first thing that's going to happen to you when you get infected is you're going to come down with a fever.

And that is the first way that you know things are happening.

After that, things are going to continue to get worse.

Now, you are going to develop what are called buboes.

It is your lymph

nodes which are struggling to deal with the bacterial load will swell and harden so oftentimes you will see basically your lymph nodes especially in your armpits and groin sometimes also in your neck but usually armpits and groin just get up to a catastrophic size and and harden and suddenly you can see people's lymph nodes which is not no you shouldn't you shouldn't be able to see them

Yeah, ideally, no.

And then also sometimes we hear from medieval people that it tends to get into the lungs a bit.

So sometimes some people have tried to differentiate between what we will call the bubonic and the pneumonic plagues.

So also whatever is happening within the lungs.