great plague of london 1665

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The Great Plague of London 1665
It was the last of the biggest epidemics of the bubonic plague that occurred in the English Kingdom between 1665 and 1666. The epidemic that was the plague killed about 100,000 people which made up about 25% of London’s population CITATION Ope15 l 1033 (Open Collections Program: Contagion).
London was at the time made up of a big city with walls around it. The city consisted of areas of great contrasting lifestyles and standards ranging from upper class estates in Whitehall and Convent garden, town houses to the lower class settlement areas crowded with poor people. The sanitation was poor and the drain channels were left open and ended up flowing along the streets in the city. Household waste, including human stool, was disposed on the streets by the inhabitants leaving the city full with flies buzzing all over during summer and with overflowing sewage during winter CITATION Ope15 l 1033 (Open Collections Program: Contagion).
These poor sanitation conditions created a good environment for the survival and breeding of the Black Rat. These rats are known to have been hosts of the Oriental rat fleas. These fleas moved and to the human beings and when they got onto open wounds or bit them, deposited a type of bacterium known as Yersinia pestitis which is known to be the cause of the bubonic plague. The poor people that lived in London were the first victims of the plague.
The plague affects the …