Bubonic Plague - or The Black Death - is thought to have wiped out about half the population of England during the first pandemic in the 14th century. The disease - caused by a bacteria not a virus - continued to devastate Europe over the next 300 years.
The village of Eyam in Derbyshire in England has gone down in history as a byword for self-sacrifice. When the plague reached there in 1665 the villagers took the courageous decision to seal themselves off from the outside world, preventing the disease spreading to nearby communities.
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