Final answer:
During the Middle Ages, individuals afflicted with the bubonic plague typically died within three days after the onset of symptoms. The mortality rate during the Black Death was between 30 to 80 percent. Effective antibiotics now exist, making plague mortality rates very low in modern times.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the Black Death, which was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, patients typically succumbed to the disease within a short time after symptoms appeared. The most common form of the disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis led to symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, aching joints, and malaise, with the appearance of egg-shaped swellings, or buboes, near the lymph nodes. Unfortunately, in the Middle Ages, death generally occurred within three days after the onset of these symptoms. Although there was variability among individuals, with some surviving after various treatments, the overall mortality rate during the Black Death was staggeringly high, often between 30 to 80 percent. Today, the mortality rates are very low because the bacterium responds well to several types of modern antibiotics.