Bubonic plague


 * For the IDW Publishing comic of similar title, see Black Death White Life.

The bubonic plague —commonly called the black death and clinically Yersinia pestis (COMIC: Black Death White Life) — was a devastating disease which originated in the Middle Ages. It was spread by rats and fleas due to the poor sanitation of that age. (TV: The Visitation) It was personified by the being known as Death.

13th century
The entity known as the Pied Piper fed on the fear of the plague in Hamelin in 1283 and 1284. (TV: The Day of the Clown)

14th century
Duroc, also known as Death, appeared during a bubonic plague outbreak in Cardiff until Faith stopped him. (TV: Dead Man Walking)

16th century
When a colony of Saturnyn came to Venice in 1580, they claimed that there was an outbreak of plague, allowing them to isolate Venice. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)

William Shakespeare's son Hamnet was a victim. It was grief over his death that brought Shakespeare to his lowest emotional ebb. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)

17th century
Barnaby's parents were killed by bubonic plague. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)

In 1666, escaped Terileptil convicts created a deliberately more virulent variant on the black death in order to infect rats with it so as to spread it to humans. The Fifth Doctor defeated them, eliminating the storage of viruses in the Great Fire of London, which was unintentionally set whilst fighting the Terileptils. (TV: The Visitation)

Another outbreak appeared to have occurred in a village in 1669. In fact, it was an instance of Macro-viruses. (COMIC: Black Death White Life)

21st century
When the Cardiff rift was opened, people with the black death fell through time into Cardiff. (TV: End of Days)

The Hotel Historia had rooms contaminated with the black death. (COMIC: Hotel Historia)