Millions of people have died from disease and plague, yet in more modern times we can fend off the bacteria that cause these diseases using antibiotics and vaccines. In all ages, people have been affected by various deadly diseases. Ranging from the years of the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, to the years of Covid-19, a deadly coronavirus, we have learned the most effective ways of battling these diseases and nearly wiped out many. However, in medieval times, the Black Death was incredibly lethal, killing about a third of all the people in Europe, about 100 million people. Our medical care and sanitation have increased immensely in quality, and people have a high chance of surviving most diseases.
Part of the reason why people couldn’t stop most plagues and diseases long ago was because they had no clue of the cause. Diseases are caused by bacteria, but this bacteria spreads it to different host species. For example, the Black Death is caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis. It starts in fleas, which bite humans and rodents, transferring it, and the rodents and humans go on to spread it further and further. Another example is SARS, an extremely contagious and deadly disease that results in death very often. It’s spread through airborne respiratory droplets, tiny infected molecules that come out when the infected person sneezes or coughs. However, for Covid-19, it was a virulent disease, but since we knew that it came from the Coronavirus, we could try our best to quarantine and stop the disease from spreading very effectively. Knowing the cause of a virus helps us stop it, allowing us to quickly create a vaccine and make the scale of Covid-19 much smaller. Knowing why viruses exist help us discern their root and allows us to take great precautions to stop their spread.
The reasons we even knew that diseases existed and it wasn’t just people suddenly dying is because they have symptoms. Symptoms of a disease can include headaches, fever, vomiting, nausea, and other characteristics that are often unique to the disease. The Bubonic Plague has the symptom of buboes, which are swollen glands that can have pus. This is one of the main features of the Bubonic Plague, and it’s part of how it can spread from an infected human to a healthy one. Leprosy has features such as numb and colorless pads of skin across the body, and it makes it easier to identify leprosy in a person. Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, also known as the swine flu, has symptoms including fever, aching muscles, and other symptoms similar to the flu. These diseases are very recognizable, and medical experts can realize exactly what strain of what bacteria is causing this, helping them stop it and prescribe the right antibiotics. Medicine has come a long way in helping us stay safe and prevent diseases, and symptoms of disease may be uncomfortable but they do help us cure viruses.
Diseases are horrible for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that they cause death and suffering to millions of people and to the loved ones of those people. As diseases progress, they often get worse and worse, such as what used to be a mild cough now turns into a hacking wheeze, and what used to be small pockets of pus are now bursting with infected fluid. The Bubonic Plague causes buboes to appear, and it is painful all the way to the final moments of the diseased person, spreading the disease while also wrecking havoc upon the infected person. Leprosy starts with just a few numb pads of skin, but it evolves into complete paralysis of crucial body parts such as the hands or feet. This is horrible, and it’s why we spend so much effort figuring out how to stop them. Covid-19 has many common symptoms, but the problem with it is that it still is quite deadly, and being contaminated is likely to result in death. These terrible diseases are the reason why we must spend a long time fighting them and trying to eradicate them entirely. Disease causes death and suffering no matter who is infected by them, and we must try our best to stop them through advanced scientific methods.
Back in medieval times and in the Dark Ages, humanity had no way of defending themselves from being infected by the disease since they had none of the advanced technology we do now. Our amazing ways of detecting disease have helped us develop and test vaccines and antibiotics. We have tools that test our temperature, machines that analyze our data, and help for every single action. We have many ways of detecting Covd-19 and stopping it, and the vaccine is effective, allowing many people to get it and avoid becoming contaminated by the disease. And for SARS, we help stop it by making sure to minimize contact with others, and especially making sure to stay very clean by washing our hands. And H1N1 can be inhibited by using extremely advanced and complex antibiotics, which help minimize the damage of H1N1. Since we can stop so many new diseases and completely prevent older ones, medical science is definitely advanced enough nowadays, but it can still improve. We have so many ways of preventing the spread of disease and curing it, using antibiotics, special detection systems, medicine, and even basic hygiene like washing our hands, that medical science is complex enough that we can defeat most diseases quite easily.
Medicine, antibiotics, and curing diseases have all become incredibly advanced in our modern times, and they are sophisticated enough to both prevent the transmission of disease and to cure them. They are caused by infectious and dangerous bacteria that cause painful symptoms of disease, allowing us to identify them and finally stop them. Examples of highly contagious and lethal diseases include the Black Death, Covid-19, H1N1, SARS, and Leprosy. These diseases all have serious symptoms that eventually lead to a horrible death, and we have mostly eradicated them in our modern day. Our advanced technology gives us a big help in saving lives, which is why I know that medical science is advanced enough.
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