Infectious diseases

Name: Justinian’s disease

Year: 541 d. C.

Contagions: 250,000-300,000

Dead: 244,000

Justinian’s plague, so called because it occurred during the reign of the aforementioned emperor, was one of the most devastating epidemics in history and hit the eastern territories of the Roman Empire and then spread throughout the Mediterranean basin.

The disease, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, spread by traveling hosted by rodent fleas on merchant ships and caravans and once arrived in Constantinople it halved the population.

The most evident sign of the disease was a swelling, called “bubbone”, in correspondence of the lymph nodes, which even in the case of incision, no result resulted.

As in almost all epidemics, people did not leave the house for fear of contagion, public life stopped and businesses stopped. Many survivors of the disease succumbed to hunger.

Source: web