Page 15 - eMuse Vol.9 No.06_Classical

Did You Know? Grandma’s

Epidemics and that . . .

Everyone on earth has been affected Sayings
by the dreaded Corona Virus pandemic.
It seems the unwelcome changes it has
brought down on us will never end.
Bad as it is, such dangers to human Political
health have adversely afflicted and placed
humanity in extreme danger before. An iconic bird mask of a plague doctor of correctness
Clearly the most catastrophic pandemic Marseilles. Part of an engraving by Paul
to strike was the dreaded Black Death (aka Fürst, c. 1721. is the art of
the pestilence and the Plague) of the Mid- In Australia we consider ourselves lucky
dle Ages. that we have not had to deal with anything offending everyone
It has been around longer than that. on this scale before, or have we . . .
Recent research has suggested plague first In our earliest colonial years, many of to address one
infected humans in Europe and Asia in the the diseases raging in Europe didn’t reach
Late Neolithic—Early Bronze Age. Australia because patients either died or complaint.
But our interest is more recent than recovered on the long voyage to get here.
that and other examples in between. In the However, among our first pandemics
Middle Ages pandemic the Plaue claimed was the first reported outbreak of small-
up to 200 million lives reaching its peak in pox among Aborigines in 1788. Yet it still
Europe from 1347 to 1351. caused widespread panic in Sydney at the
Blame Rats? time. A year later there were fears of a
Diphtheria pandemic.
Traditional thinking tells us the Plague An epidemic during February and June
was spread by rats, or, more accurately, the 1867 affecting residents in Sydney city and
fleas which infected rats. Modern science its inner suburbs. 748 people died, mostly
tends to challenge that truism. children under 4 years.
Hygiene in the middle ages was appall- A Scarlet Fever epidemic raged during
ing. Among other issues, unclean bodies 1875-76 causing more than 8,000 deaths in
and filthy clothing were a rich breeding Australia, mostly of children.
ground for fleas. Humans could probably Although it only claimed forty lives,
match other animals as hosts for these un- the Smallpox epidemic in Sydney in 1881
welcome, irritating little parasites. caused widespread panic.
While the plague was often spread by The Asiatic or Russian flu pandemic
flea bites, this time anyway, the rats were which swept the world in 1889-91 killed
not to blame. Fleas came from the people more than one million people worldwide.
themselves. When it reached Australia it claimed over
Keep your Distance 234 lives, which represented 30% of the
In our treatment of Covid-19, in record population. Again, it caused widespread
time, we’ve become all to familiar with pre- panic.
cautions in place like social isolation, keep- Horrors of the Black Death reached us
ing 1.5 m apart, staying home, not travel- here on the cusp of Federation. We had
ling, quarantine, and so on. twelve plague outbreaks in Australia be-
Believe it or not, back in the days of tween 1900 and 1925. These resulted in
the Plague similar measures were in place well over 1,000 deaths, chiefly in Sydney.
wherever possible. Apparently we can be This led to the establishment of a Pub-
taught enough to learn from the past. lic Health Department there which under-
took some leading-edge research on plague
Iconic Bird Mask transmission from rat fleas to humans via
After the outbreak of the Middle Ages the bacillus Yersinia pestis.
second and third outbreaks of the plague According to estimates, the Spanish Flu
were to come. During the Second, a French of a century ago infected 500 million (⅓
doctor named Charles de Lorme invented of the world’s population back then) and
the ‘beak doctor’ costume in 1619. The it claimed at least 50 million lives — more
bird mask was designed to be worn with a than the whole of World War I.
large waxen coat as a form of head-to-toe Until it was finally brought under con-
protection, modelled on a soldier’s armour. trol, Spanish Flu caused widespread panic.
One can’t help but wonder that such Introduction of antibiotics gave the
a costume, by itself, would bring about a world a feeling pandemics were a
sudden and merciful end to delirious thing of the past. Unfortunately as
patients already on the brink of a we have seen that was not to be . . .
lingering death. Wally

May 2020 eMuse 15