Plague Doctors and Protective Gear

The Plague Doctors original art by The Becka

As we enter "Season Two" of COVID-19, we must remember that plagues have impacted human history since the beginning of time. The first Biblical reference to a probable outbreak of bubonic plague is found in 1 Samuel 5 and 6. Three Philistine cities were overrun with rats, and tumours broke out on small and great alike. Bubonic plague is spread by fleas and the bacteria causes buboes which are painful swellings of the lymph nodes. Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacteria but is contagious from person to person.

In the 17th to 19th centuries, plague doctors were hired by towns to treat patients with bubonic plague. The beaks of their masks were stuffed with aromatic herbs to protect them from the miasma of disease. They used canes to touch and examine their patients. 

I read the book Hamnet and Judith by Maggie O'Farrell this month. It is a historical fiction novel set in 1580 about William Shakespeare, his wife Agnes (or Anne), his daughter Susanna and his twins, Hamnet (or Hamlet) and Judith. The book is well written with an interesting plot and excellent descriptive narrative. Hamnet dies at age 11 of bubonic plague and description of his illness is horrifying.  His sister Judith becomes ill first, but survives. Their mother Agnes is skilled in administering healing herbs, but her knowledge is insufficient to save her son. 

William Shakespeare spent much of each year in London where living conditions were poor for the general population. The Globe Theatre would be closed when outbreaks of the plague flared up and mass gatherings were disallowed. Between 1603 and 1613, London playhouses were shut down for a total of 78 months as the plague ravaged the city year after year.

In the decade of my birth, polio was finally controlled with a vaccine. I received a small pox vaccination as a child and since then, the disease has been erradicated. The outbreak of AIDS in the 1980s changed hospital infection control measures significantly and universal precautions became the norm. 

And now, in 2021, the respirators we wear to protect us from airborne transmission of COVID-19 are not much different aesthetically than plague doctor masks. I predict that surgical masks and respirators will be standard in medical settings for the indefinite future. 

There is valid scientific knowledge to explain and control pandemics and contagious disease today. But the basics of good hygiene, protective gear and the limiting of mass gatherings remain vitally important.