Reacción a "A study casts doubt on whether the epidemic that struck Mallorca in 1820 was bubonic plague"

This work makes a significant contribution to the study of the plague and, in particular, to the epidemic outbreak that affected the eastern part of Mallorca in 1820, specifically the towns of Son Servera, Capdepera, Artà and Sant Llorenç, although the authors focus solely on the first two.

By combining a rigorous analysis of historical sources with mathematical modelling, the authors challenge the conventional interpretation which attributes a central (or decisive) role to rodents in the dynamics of disease transmission, leading to the bubonic form of the disease. Their findings suggest that person-to-person transmission—whether characterised as pneumonic or via human ectoparasites—may have played a far more significant role than traditionally accepted, particularly in this instance. This explains why many of those affected did not develop buboes (and, at the same time, why doctors of the time were confused about the definition of the disease).

The article thus contributes to the historiographical debate initiated by authors such as Ole J. Benedictow regarding the relative importance of the mechanisms by which the plague spread across Europe. It also offers a convincing explanation for the extremely high mortality rate recorded during the Mallorcan epidemic and provides new insights into the effectiveness of the isolation and containment measures adopted by the health authorities of the time in accordance with the principles of contagionist medicine.