what was being done medically for the bubonic plague of the 14th century?

Question

i know that there was no cure but was there anything being done?
if there wasnt any treatment how did they prevent it from spreading to other people?
basically do you have any information on the treatment or prevention of the plague?

Answer 1

Those who had money and could do it fled the cities for the countryside. Others shut themselves up in their homes and hoped for the best. Lots of praying. Priests would bleed plague victims and lance the lymph nodes, but it didn't help. Cloved fruit was supposed to keep the malaise (bad air) away.

It just occurred to me that there was a reason for using cloves because they are an antiseptic (used for toothache today) and the plague was airborne after a while. It went from being bubonic to pneumonic (airborne). Cloved fruit didn't work.

Answer 2

The most famous symptom of bubonic plague is painful, swollen lymph glands, called buboes. These are commonly found in the armpits, groin or neck. Due to its bite-based form of infection, the bubonic plague is often the first step of a progressive series of illnesses. Bubonic plague symptoms appear suddenly, usually 2–5 days after exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms include: Chills General ill feeling (malaise) High fever (39 °Celsius; 102 °Fahrenheit) Muscle Cramps[5] Seizures Smooth, painful lymph gland swelling called a bubo, commonly found in the groin, but may occur in the armpits or neck, most often at the site of the initial infection (bite or scratch) Pain may occur in the area before the swelling appears Skin color changes to a pink hue in some extreme cases Bleeding out of the cochlea will begin after 12 hours of infection. Other symptoms include heavy breathing, continuous blood vomiting, urination of blood[citation needed], aching limbs, coughing, and extreme pain. The pain is usually caused by the decaying or decomposing of the skin while the person is still alive. Additional symptoms include extreme fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, lenticulae (black dots scattered throughout the body), delirium and coma. Two other types of Y. pestis plague are pneumonic and septicemic. However, pneumonic plague, unlike the bubonic or septicemic, induced coughing and was very infectious, allowing to be spread person-to-person.

Answer 3

Ring around the rosies
Pocket full of posies
Ashes ashes
We all fall down.

They had no idea how the disease was spread. However there was a peculiar (English?) thing I'd read of of certain kinds of doctor or healer or wise woman, I forget what, who dressed covered head to toe and gloved, including a long conical nose covering, almost a birdlike beak, and used all kinds of smelly herbal and other concoctions. Actually the secure bodily covering and conical breathing mask may have allowed them to be with the ill and not get bitten by fleas that carried bubonic plague or the airborne pneumonic type.

Answer 4

Often they would cut off the spots (this didn't work because they were internal as well) but they really couldn't do anything but put them all in the hands of members of the church because those were the only people with 'medical experience'

Answer 5

Mostly they just avoided the sick person.. occasionally they came appon something that slowed down the spread or symptoms but that was just by 'trial and error', but really didnt help much. What eventually ended it was natural quarenteening, that is entire villages were wiped out so there were less people to spread it. eventually the disease dispersed. Theory is that the disease carrying rodent population died out.

Answer 6

Many people wore face masks so as not to get it. But the poor could not afford such things. There was no treatment.
Every day someone, (I' d hate to have been him) came down the streets with the carts, calling out "Bring out your dead"
and they threw the bodies into pits and burned them.