Modern Explanations for the Plague

Modern scientists call the disease that spread throughout the country during 1665 ‘bubonic plague’. The cause of bubonic plague is thought to be a bacteria called Yersina pestis. This bacteria lives in the blood of rats. When a flea bites an infected rat, the bacteria passes into their stomach. If this flea bites a human and vomits the blood in its stomach into the bite, the bacteria will be transferred to the human. This human will now have the plague.