Black Death

A disease that may have been spread by the fleas of infected rats, however new evidence suggests that once the disease had infected the lungs of the malnourished it was quickly spread by sneezing and coughing, so may well have been airborne.  Symptoms included painful swelling of the lymph glands, spots on the skin which were red at first, turning black.  Believed to have originated from China, due to it being one of the busiest of the world's trading nations.  Also known as the plague (bubonic plague, but more likely to be pneumonic).