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The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as 50 million people [2] perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. [3] The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and spread by fleas and through the air.
Figures for the death toll vary widely by area and from source to source, and estimates are frequently revised as historical research brings new discoveries to light. Most scholars estimate that the Black Death killed up to 75 million people [5] in the 14th century, at a time when the entire world population was still less than 500 million.
One of the worst plagues in history, the Black Death arrived on the shores of Europe in 1347. Five years later, around 25 to 50 million people were dead across the continent.
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic, which reached England in June 1348. It was the first and most severe manifestation of the second pandemic, caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria. The term Black Death was not used until the late 17th century.
Theories of the Black Death are a variety of explanations that have been advanced to explain the nature and transmission of the Black Death (1347–51). A number of epidemiologists from the 1980s to the 2000s challenged the traditional view that the Black Death was caused by plague based on the type and spread of the disease.
The Black Death first originated in Kyrgyzstan, in central Asia, in the late 1330s, spreading rapidly to devastate the Middle East and Europe.
Mutations that helped humans survive the bubonic plague are still measurable — and appears to make people more susceptible to some chronic diseases.
The Black Death ravaged Europe for three years before it continued on into Russia, where the disease hit somewhere once every five or six years from 1350 to 1490. [39] Plague epidemics ravaged London in 1563, 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665, [40] reducing its population by 10 to 30% during those years. [41]