Coronavirus and Other Pandemics : Is History Repeating Itself?

Coronavirus and Other Pandemics : Is History Repeating Itself?

 

Coronavirus and Other Pandemics : Is History Repeating Itself?

A pandemic is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. 

Throughout history, as humans spread across the world, infectious diseases have been a constant companion. One of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death also known as The Plague. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant.

Here we will discuss some of history's most deadly pandemics, from the Plague of Athens to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The plague of Athens broke out somewhat between 430 BCE to 426 BCE. It killed a quarter of the Athenian troops and a quarter of the population over 4 years. This disease fatally weakened the dominance of Athens.

Antonine Plague occurred somewhat between 165 AD and 188 AD. It was possibly brought to the Italian Peninsula by soldiers returning from the near east. It caused the death of 5 million people.

Plague of Justinian (541-750) started in Egypt and killed almost 40% deaths of the city's inhabitants and went on killing around a quarter to half of the world's human population. It caused Europe's population to decline by 50%. It killed almost 30 to 50 million people.

Japanese Smallpox Epidemic (735-737) killed almost 1 million people.

Black Death (1331 to 1353) also known as Bubonic Plague, caused death worldwide to estimated about 200 million people. 

Cholera was previously restricted to the Indian subcontinent and began in Bengal, and then spread across India by 1820. It then extended to China, Indonesia and then Russia. From Russia, it spread to Germany, Hungary, France, England and the United States. It spread all across the globe and has killed tens of millions of people.

The third plague pandemic (1885) started in China and spread into India where 10 million people died. During this pandemic, the United States saw its first outbreak; the San Francisco plague of 1900-1904.

Spanish Flu (1918-1920) infected 500 million people around the world and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million people. It had an unusually high mortality rate for young adults. Spanish flu killed more people than World War I did and it killed more people in 25 weeks than AIDS did in its first 25 years. Mass movements and close quarters during World War I caused it to spread and mutate faster.

Smallpox was a contagious disease caused by the Variola Virus. The disease killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans per year during the closing years of the 18th century. During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300-500 million deaths. As recently as the early 1950s, an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred in the world each year. After successful vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the eradication of smallpox in December 1979. To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated, and one of two infectious viruses ever to be eradicated along with Rinderpest.

HIV originated in Africa and spread to the United States via Haiti between 1966 and 1972. AIDS is currently a pandemic, with infection rates as high as 25% in Southern and Eastern Africa.

Measles was prevalent throughout the world, as it is highly contagious. According to a study based in the United States, 90% of people were infected with measles by age 15. Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, there were an estimated three to four million cases in the U.S. each year. Measles killed around 200 million people worldwide over the last 150 years. In 2000 alone, measles killed some 777,000 worldwide out of 40 million cases globally.

Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and one-quarter of the world's population has been infected with it. About 5-10% of these infections will eventually progress to active disease, which, if left untreated, kills more than half its victims. Around eight million people become ill with it annually and two million die from the disease worldwide. During the 20th century, it killed almost 100 million people. It is still one of the most important health problems in the developing world.

COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus which originated in Wuhan, Hubei province, China in late December 2019 has caused a cluster of cases of an acute respiratory disease which is referred to as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). More than 200 countries and territories have been affected by it.

We have advanced very much are we are at the zenith of technological advancement yet nature brings out more ways to make us ponder and doubt over our such advancements. Overall, we can conclude that nature can amuse us anytime and we can't have complete control over nature ever.

- Amit Choudhary

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