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Retrospectacle does plague

By tsmith on January 11, 2008.

I'll have new posts up here next week, but meanwhile, over at Retrospectacle, Shelley's made this week plague week. She introduces the topic here, and next dishes about plague fashion. Also in the comments, it's asked:

I recently heard that there is some doubt now that the Black Death may not have been bubonic plague. The doubt based on the speed of transmission, but no alternate disease was mentioned. Is there any other disease that matches the symptoms that could be a likely alternative?

Long time readers know that I've referred to this previously and promised to post on it, so if even Shelley's jumping into this game, I should probably get off my rear and get that post written. I'll have that up, and some additional posts on plague, syphilis, and more next week.

Tags
General Epidemiology
Historical studies of disease
infectious disease
public health
Various bacteria

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Plague...syphilis. These stories won't have 'and they all lived happily ever after' at the end.

Researching a book I read the suggestion that the black death was an haemorragic virus rather than bubonic plague, but being too prone to wander down byways instead of working didn't follow it up.

Yep, that's what I'll discuss. Shelley actually now has a post up on that for an intro in today's edition; I'll elaborate much more on her intro.