The Plague VS H1N1

Throughout history there have been many horrible pandemics that have killed many people and wreaked havoc on cities, countries, and continents. Two of these pandemics were the bubonic plague in medieval Europe, and the H1N1 outbreak in modern times. Although both of these are awful diseases and have killed many people, I believe that H1N1 has had more of a global impact. The main reason I believe this is that H1N1 has truly affected every continent, while bubonic plague was mostly contained in Europe and Asia.

According to Scott Hayden, in his article published on May 21, 2007, the bubonic plague struck Europe during the Middle Ages. As the documents in the document packet showed, this disease likely came from Asia via trade routes. Although, as written in "The Black Death, Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe some cities did suffer loses as great as 1,000 people per day, The Plague was well contained to only Europe and Asia.

As published by the World Health Organization, as of October 25, 2009, there have been more than 444,000 confirmed cases of the H1N1 strain of influenza worldwide. Over 5,700 deaths have been reported to WHO so far. While the number of deaths and confirmed cases does not top the amount of people struck with The Plague, H1N1 influenza has been more widespread, to include The United States; Spain; Austria; Japan; Russia; and the Caribbean, affecting each and every continent to some degree.

Some people may argue that The Plague had a greater global impact than that of influenza H1N1. You might hear that because the bubonic plague was largely responsible for the end of Feudalism and disillusionment of the Catholic Church that it had a larger global argument. However, I would have to disagree. H1N1 is closing educational institutions around the world. In the end, closing schools will have a great impact on the education standards of the globe. The longer schools are closed, the further behind students will fall, losing valuable time in the classroom and exposure to lessons. Also, H1N1 is affecting hospitals. They have to change their visitor policies to protect patients. I believe that this is one of the first signs that hospitals will be affected so greatly as to impact their ability to care for those stricken with this strain of influenza. It is likely that there will be so great a population affected that hospitals will not be able to respond. For example, the hospital staff is not immune to catching H1N1. As the pandemic progresses, medical centers will likely be hurting for resources, to include staff. Based on the fact that more of the global has been affected by the H1N1 influenza than the bubonic plague, I believe that H1N1 has had more of a global impact. Also, even though The Plague destroyed much of European society, including Feudalism, H1N1 is destroying the modern day global society. By closing schools and changing hospital's policies, H1N1 is slowing eroding at the modern day lifestyle and is doing more harm than even the bubonic plague did.