Editing Black Death (section)

====Bubonic plague====
Symptoms of the plague include fever of {{convert|38|–|41|°C|°F}}, headaches, [[arthralgia|painful aching joint]]s, [[nausea]] and vomiting, and a general feeling of [[malaise]]. Left untreated, 80% of victims die within eight days.<ref>R. Totaro ''Suffering in Paradise: The Bubonic Plague in English Literature from More to Milton'' (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2005), p. 26</ref>

Contemporary accounts of the pandemic are varied and often imprecise.{{efn|In Britain "the special symptoms characteristic of the plague of 1348–9 were four in number:— (1) Gangrenous inflammation of the throat and lungs; (2) Violent pains in the region of the chest; (3) The vomiting and spitting of blood; and (4) The pestilential odour coming from the bodies and breath of the sick."<ref name=gasquet>{{cite book |last1=Gasquet |first1=Francis Aidan |title=The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known as the Black Death |date=29 May 2014 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45815 |language=English}}</ref>}} The most commonly noted symptom was the appearance of [[bubo]]es (or ''gavocciolos'') in the groin, neck and armpits, which oozed pus and bled when opened.<ref name=Byrne2004pp21-9/> [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]]'s description:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% |In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain [[neoplasm|tumour]]s in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg&nbsp;... From the two said parts of the body this deadly ''gavocciolo'' soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the [[disease|malady]] began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous. As the ''gavocciolo'' had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves.<ref>{{Citation| vauthors = Boccaccio G |title=Decameron|year=1351|title-link=The Decameron}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Mark JJ |title=Boccaccio on the Black Death: Text & Commentary |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1537/boccaccio-on-the-black-death-text--commentary/ |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |date=3 April 2020 |access-date=20 April 2021 |archive-date=20 April 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210420181944/https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1537/boccaccio-on-the-black-death-text--commentary/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|The only medical detail that is questionable in Boccaccio's description is that the ''gavocciolo'' was an "infallible token of approaching death", as, if the bubo discharges, recovery is possible.{{sfn|Ziegler|1998|pages=18–19}}}}}}

This was followed by acute [[fever]] and [[hematemesis|vomiting of blood]]. Most people died two to seven days after initial infection. Freckle-like spots and rashes,<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Herlihy D | date = 1997 | title = The Black Death and the Transformation of the West | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | publisher = Harvard University Press | isbn = 978-0-674-07613-6 | page=29}}</ref> which may have been caused by [[pulicosis|flea-bite]]s, were identified as another potential sign of plague.