There’s a very funny scene in an old Monty Python movie that shows a body collector calling, “Bring out your dead… Bring out your dead.” He heaves another body onto the wagon, and someone says, “He’s not dead, yet.” The body collector whacks the body on the head and says, “He is now.”
If you’re familiar with Monty Python, you know that much of their humor was based on pure silliness. But the basis of that particular scene is rooted in a terrible reality. During the 14th century, bubonic plague swept across Europe.
From what I remember from historian Barbara Tuchman’s book, “A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century,” a trade ship was seen floating off the coast of Holland in the late 13th century. People rowed out to the boat and discovered everyone aboard dead.
Inadvertently, this is how bubonic plague entered Europe after first decimating Africa. It is said that more than 60% of the European population was wiped out in the 14th century. This leads me to believe if you’re from African or European stock, you have some pretty strong genetics in your favor. Only the strongest people survived through those awful times.
Apart from plague, people in medieval Europe also had to contend with leprosy, a bacterial infection that affected the skin, and in the most severe cases, was fatal. Like bubonic plague, leprosy was highly contagious. People identified as having it were literally cast out of their communities and sent to live in leper colonies.
Today, leprosy is known as Hansen’s disease and is highly treatable. People who contract the disease more often than not go on to live normal lives. It’s considered to be exceptionally rare now, in the 21st century. So what’s up with the red squirrels in the United Kingdom?
Scientists recently discovered that many of them carry the same medieval strain of Hansen’s disease. Worse, they can infect humans with it, although the chances are small. What really shocked researchers was the fact that a pathogen thought for centuries to be eradicated is still in existence. Further studies are underway to determine how to save the red squirrels, as they are endangered in Great Britain.
And don’t get too comfortable, America, armadillos also carry leprosy.
