What are the 5 symptoms of the Black Death?
Matthew Cannon
Updated on January 14, 2026
Signs and symptoms include:
- Fever and chills.
- Extreme weakness.
- Abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting.
- Bleeding from your mouth, nose or rectum, or under your skin.
- Shock.
- Blackening and death of tissue (gangrene) in your extremities, most commonly your fingers, toes and nose.
What are 4 symptoms of the Black Death?
Forms of plague. Bubonic plague: The incubation period of bubonic plague is usually 2 to 8 days. Patients develop fever, headache, chills, and weakness and one or more swollen, painful lymph nodes (called buboes). This form usually results from the bite of an infected flea.What was the main symptom of the Black Death?
Bubonic plague causes fever, fatigue, shivering, vomiting, headaches, giddiness, intolerance to light, pain in the back and limbs, sleeplessness, apathy, and delirium. It also causes buboes: one or more of the lymph nodes become tender and swollen, usually in the groin or armpits.What kind of sickness was the Black Death?
Bubonic plague is a type of infection caused by the Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) bacterium which is spread mostly by fleas on rodents and other animals. Humans who are bitten by the fleas then can come down with plague. It's an example of a disease that can spread between animals and people (a zoonotic disease).What was the first symptom of the Black Death and where on the body did it first appear?
Bubonic plague, the disease's most common form, refers to telltale buboes—painfully swollen lymph nodes—that appear around the groin, armpit, or neck. The skin sores become black, leading to its nickname during pandemics as “Black Death.” Initial symptoms of this early stage include vomiting, nausea, and fever.Symptoms of "Black Death" -- The Doctors
What is the Black Death called today?
Understanding the Black DeathToday, scientists understand that the Black Death, now known as the plague, is spread by a bacillus called Yersinia pestis. (The French biologist Alexandre Yersin discovered this germ at the end of the 19th century.)
What does the Black Plague look like?
A large, swollen, red lymph node (bubo) in the armpit (axillary) of a person with bubonic plague. Symptoms of the plague are severe and include a general weak and achy feeling, headache, shaking chills, fever, and pain and swelling in affected regional lymph nodes (buboes).What is the yellow fever?
Yellow fever is a disease that is transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The most common symptoms are fever, muscle pain with prominent backache, headache, loss of appetite, and nausea or vomiting. A small proportion of those infected with yellow fever will develop severe disease.What were the first symptoms of the plague?
Other bubonic plague signs and symptoms may include:
- Sudden onset of fever and chills.
- Headache.
- Fatigue or malaise.
- Muscle aches.