INSpiREzine Germs Gone Viral! | Page 49

In a seemingly radical attempt to control the spread of the plague, the local government decreed public institutions closed and forcibly confined the sick to their homes, marking their doors with red crosses and a plea, "Lord have mercy on this house."

Plague doctors, dawned in protective gear (a waxed overcoat and a beaked mask stuffed with aromatic herbs and spices) were hired by the city to identify, confine, and possibly treat plague victims.

“Ring around a rosie,

a pocket full of posies.

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down."

The popular nursery rhyme is speculated to have originated during the Great Plague of London.

Nothing to Learn Whilst at Home?

As the story goes, Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under the shade of an apple tree when an apple fell to the ground, supposedly hitting him on the head. It was this eureka moment that inspired Newton’s “Law of Universal Gravitation”. But what was the 25-year-old Cambridge student doing home from school in the Fall of 1666? Following the outbreak of the plague in London, in 1665, the government ordered the closure of public institutions, including Cambridge University. As such, Newton returned home. He would later refer to this unstructured time as his "annus mirabilis" (year of wonders), discovering, amongst other things, calculus, the theory of light and the law of gravity.

After a third plague pandemic that claimed 25 million lives in China and India in the late 19th century, numerous smaller waves in the 20th century, several semi-successful attempts at creating a vaccine, and the development of effective antibiotic treatments, the disease has now dwindled to a mere 1000 - 3000 cases per year, worldwide. At its peak, during the Black Death, the plague spread at a rate of eight miles per day. This is hundreds of times faster than its rate of spread during 20th century outbreaks, which was no faster than eight miles per year!

Today, the plague remains endemic in Madagascar, the Congo and Peru.

- Rowan Parkinson