*hides under blankets*

[silverflight8]

Note to self:

Don't research plague before bedtime.

Especially when you know their impact. Mortality rates of bubonic plague is estimated at 30-75%, pneumatic at 80% or higher, and septicaemic nearly 100% and no, you can't make me go back to Wikipedia and check my figures.

And it's not like smallpox. There's an animal carrier that we can't exactly eradicate :(

Comments

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Lower mortality rates, but higher areas of spread = more fatalities. If the bubonic plague, or, godforbidanyoftheothervariants hit now, with the globalization of today, it'd be catastrophic. Beyond catastrophic.

Exactly! 10% in a mobile society is bad enough--you're right about the WWI thing, since people sick aren't staying home but moving--now imagine this figure upped. THAT'S what scares me. Plus the increasing mobility of people today; I remember the panic about SARS, where diseases can be brought across the world in a matter of hours.

Hm, I had the impression that the plague devastated places like India, Baghdad, anywhere there was major cities.

I did see the theories regarding anthrax and other causes, yeah.

Interesting! But I should really stop looking at this stuff.