Tough times for many people around the world!
It is happening now, and it is called ‘Coronavirus’ or ‘Corvid-19’.
Over a thousand years, there were many viruses and outbreak diseases, and many people died in the past. The worst serious case was the Black Death between 1346 to 1353.
There were 75-200 million people, and this figure was from the website MPH online, or 25-30 million people as this figure were from the website Ancient History Encyclopedia died across Europe, Africa and Asia. These figures were not clear or accurate due to lack of resources over many years. Yes, it is a bit confusing to know what is the actual number of death case.
What is the symptom of Black Death? There were three different types which are Bubonic, pneumonic (or pulmonary) and septicaemic plagues.
When and where was the first quarantine take place? The quarantine took place in Venice in the 15th Century for 40 days period while another place which is in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in 1377 for 30 days period. The first creation of lazaret was in Venice, and the rest of Italy coast were many maritime travellers came to the ports in 1348. What lazaret is? It is a quarantine station like today. Italy solved the problem, and the rest of Europe include England followed this method.
There are several pictures resembles what people’s lives look like in the community.
Remember, in the medieval, the doctors, scientists have no idea about microscopic organisms as bacteria, let alone the rats or other type of rodents – gerbils and rat fleas did the rest. The cause of this result by rats, gerbils or other rodents including fleas, was living in the ships and it became a perfect place for the breeding ground while fleas live on rodents’ bodies. Once the vessel arrived at the ports, rodents seeking out more grains, maize and other kinds of foods they find anywhere in urban town/city. The result was the insidious bacterium flourished everywhere onto human and other animals such as cats, dogs, cows or sheep.
What can we learn to prevent plague and virus from history? It is really difficult to avoid the spreading of the virus, BUT it is better to stay safe such as wash your hands, cough/sneeze in the inside elbow area, keep calm, don’t panic, stay home if you are ill or not strong enough to recover, isolating yourself from your family and friends. Do ask for help if you can not do food shopping and have someone deliver your grocery to the door as we have got fantastic technology where we can do online food shopping today. Even ask the pharmacist to drop off the prescription if you can not pick your repeat medicine up.
However, there have been hugely ‘panic epidemic’ when everyone was doing shopping at the supermarkets, food chain supermarkets and small shops. Every product such as toilet rolls, hand sanisiters, baby wipes, wet wipes, cleaning product – Dettol was empty on the shelves. Many elderly people could not buy these products for themselves because the people of today generation do not seem to think about elderly people or people with health issues/disabilities. It is selfish or foolish to panic quickly instead of thinking about other people for their needs.
Our New Zealand Government is calling for calm and think before anyone do shopping, and the Prime Minister gave us a simple message – Don’t panic and stay calm. There were a lot of messages, video with NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) for many Deaf people, plain simple English language for People First (person who have a learning disability). The Ministry of Health set up many posters and information in many other languages such as Mandarin, Samoan or Arabic in New Zealand. On television, Deaf people are pleased to see a live NZSL interpreter during the news/breaking news so they can follow what happening and the next plan they can prepare.
Here is the website you can view or look up below.
NZ Government/Ministry of Health – Covid19
Life in Eureka 