Bubonic Plague Doctor

However some plague doctors were known to charge patients and their families additional fees for special treatments or false cures.

Bubonic plague doctor. Bubonic plague is an infection of the lymphatic system usually resulting from the bite of an infected flea xenopsylla cheopis the rat flea. The plague doctor mask is one of the most recognizable symbols of the black death. Aside from the fact that they were made fun of by the germans not much is known about the plague doctors of the 17th century.

During that period s outbreaks of the bubonic plague a pandemic that recurred in europe for centuries towns gripped by the disease hired plague doctors who practiced what passed for medicine. A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of the bubonic plague. Out of desperation cities hired a new breed of physician so called plague doctors who were either second rate physicians young physicians with limited experience or who had no certified medical training at all.

Though the image is iconic the relationship may be a little anachronistic. The pictures show doctors wearing a black robe with a round hat and a face covering that have bird like beak on it which is nothing like today s n95 masks. Thought to have spread from a ship that carried the disease it ravaged the city of naples.

The poor could not avoid contracting the plague. But what does it mean. The black death was the deadliest epidemic of bubonic plague in history wiping out some 25 million europeans alone in just a few years.

In very rare circumstances as in the septicemic plague the disease can be transmitted by direct contact with infected tissue or exposure to the cough of another human the flea is parasitic on house and field rats and seeks out other prey when its. In times of epidemics these physicians were specifically hired by towns where the plague had taken hold since the city was paying their salary they treated everyone wealthy or poor. The death toll was half of the city s residents.

Our best understanding is that they were municipal doctors working in large cities for the urban government or the monarchy. The garb compromises of long dark robes covering the person from head to toe as well as a round hat and clawed gloves. Since ppes are a modern concept the most common image of the bubonic plague is the costume of the bubonic plague doctor which a basic google search will tell you looks scary to say the least.

While plague doctors have been plying their trade since the middle ages it was only after this period during the 17th century that they acquired their creepy trademark costume. China s inner mongolia region reports bubonic plague case media reports suggest that doctors used a robe to cover their bodies from head to toe.