Given all the evidence above it appears that there were benefits from the plague but these were only slight compensations for a gross mass of human life from a tragic disease.

Without treatment, about 10% of affected individuals would develop disfiguring and disabling complications after five years because the disease may cause gross destruction of the skin and bones.

It is a debilitating disease whose effects in its young victims (mostly children under 15 years of age) can often cause gross deformation.