What were the major epidemics of the middle ages?
which was the most devastating?
why were they so feared?
what factors contributed to the spread?
what were some of the strategies used to by people to prevent these diseases?

During the middle ages, people suffered from many diseases, including smallpox, dysentery, leprosy, respiratory illnesses, malaria, and syphilis. In those times, people died from measles, scarlet fever, and tuberculosis.

The most notorious of diseases from this time was The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague, Bubonic Plague, or the Plague, or less commonly the Black Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.

Ole J. Benedictow, a Norwegian historian has calculated that the Black Death could have killed as man as 50 million people in the 14th century, or 60 per cent of Europe's entire population from 1346 - 1353.

Strategies used to attempt to prevent the spread of the disease included isolating those who are infected by barricading them into closed areas until after they have died, shipping bodies away in mass numbers, wearing beaked masks that were packed with sweet smells, such as dried flowers, herbs and spices in an attempt to filter the plague when working with patients.