Deadly epidemics in the history of mankind The word epidemic comes from two ancient Greek words meaning "general disease" and "people." In the etymology lies the nature of the epidemic process, which consists in the rapid spread of an infectious disease among the inhabitants of the planet. There are many cases of epidemics recorded in history, and we will talk about the most deadly epidemics in the history of mankind.
The deadliest epidemics in human history:
1
Spanish flu
In the photo: Kansas Military Hospital during the “Spanish epidemic.”
The people called the disease “Spaniard,” and its spread has become the most massive flu epidemic in human history. The pandemic was the result of World War I. The first cases of a new type of flu were recorded in the last months of the war.
During the years 1918-1919, more than 100 million people died from the disease in the world. According to statistics, this is 5% of the then population of the planet. But about 30% of the world's inhabitants fell ill with Spanish flu. It was the worst epidemic that claimed so many human lives in a short time.
American soldiers returning home from the war fronts brought infection to the North American continent. The disease did not spare anyone, destroying entire cities and village settlements on all continents of the globe.
2
Justinian's Plague
Painting by Peter Bruegel.
The first deadly pandemic, about which reliable and complete information has reached our time. The center of distribution was the Nile Valley.
Egypt then exported wheat to Byzantium. Riders and mice traditionally became carriers of the plague, trapped in the Byzantine Empire on the ships of Egyptian merchants. An epidemic was named after the Byzantine emperor Justinian, during the reign of which the first deaths were recorded among the inhabitants of Constantinople.
Historians say that the plague raged from 541 to the 750s, and more than 70 million people have died in two centuries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
3
Smallpox
Smallpox became the first in the list of diseases that were completely defeated. Now in the nature of the causative agent of smallpox does not exist.
But in ancient times, the inhabitants of the East fully felt the death breath of this ugly disease. In the 4th century, the smallpox epidemic passed through the provinces of China, in the 6th century it reached Korea, and in 737 it killed one third of the population of Japan.
In India, the fear of smallpox even gave rise to a new deity - Mariatape. Smallpox knew no boundaries and periodically raged in Europe, in Latin America. At the end of the 18th century, it hit Europe, and in 1796 an effective vaccine was opened against it.
The discovery of smallpox vaccine, according to most-beauty.ru, is one of the most useful discoveries of mankind. And the way the whole world rallied to defeat a deadly disease should be an important example for people.
4
Black Death
Nicola Poussin. The Plague in Ashdod, 1630
The second time the plague returned to Europe in 1339 and raged until the beginning of the XV century. After the peak, plague foci erupted in different regions of Europe, causing the death of tens of thousands of people.
The exact number of deaths from the plague is practically impossible to calculate, but according to various estimates, up to 60% of European countries died from black death. In London, out of 10 people, 9 died, and in Russian Smolensk in 1386 only 5 residents were lucky to stay alive.
Only the development of medicine and the observance of elementary rules of sanitation allowed to reduce the number of victims. And in London, the deadly plague receded after the devastating fire of 1666. Compared to other deadly epidemics, the black disease claimed the most lives.
5
English sweat
One of the epidemics, the reasons for which could not be clarified. The epidemic most affected England, which is why it began to be called the "English sweat."
The peak of the disease occurred in the period from 1485 to 1551. In 1485, Henry Tudor triumphantly returned to London after the victory at Bosworth and was crowned under the name Henry VII. In his army there were Breton and French mercenaries, who brought an unknown disease to Misty Albion.
The disease, the symptoms of which resembled typhoid and plague, struck Scandinavia, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the vastness of the Holy Roman Empire. An unknown disease caused the death of almost 700 thousand people.
6
Cholera
In total, 7 cholera pandemics have been recorded in the history of mankind. The first one went through Europe in 1816–1824, and the last outbreak was recorded in 1961-1975.
In the first coming of cholera, humanity was unarmed in the face of a dangerous disease, which caused numerous victims. Doctors fixed this disease before, but at that time the bacteria that caused cholera mutated. In Bangkok, 30 thousand people died, and in 1817, walking through the countries of Central Asia and southern Russia, cholera reached Europe.
More than 400 thousand people died from the disease, and only the cold winter of 1823-1824 managed to stop the spread of cholera.
7
Plague of Thucydides
This epidemic was one of the first recorded in written sources. Scant information has come to us about earlier epidemics, although they naturally were, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
During the Peloponnesian War, tens of thousands of refugees filled the streets of Athens. A large concentration of people caused an increase in morbidity. The epidemic raged in the city from 431 to 427 years and claimed the lives of more than 30 thousand inhabitants.
Her victim was the father of the Athenian democracy, Pericles, and the historian Thucydides was infected, but survived. It was they who left written evidence of the tragic event. Scientists suggest that the cause of illness and death was a combination of typhoid and measles.
8
Modern epidemics
Among modern viruses that cause fatal diseases, new strains of the flu, Ebola, to some extent the immunodeficiency virus, should be mentioned.
Scientists knew about influenza in birds at the end of the 19th century, but at the beginning of the 21st century, bird flu caused a real panic among the inhabitants of the planet. Infection with a new strain of H5N1 was first recorded in Hong Kong in 1997. The new flu made a lot of noise. According to the WHO, from 2003 to 2008, 227 cases of the disease became fatal.
In 2009, the swine flu pandemic caused by a strain of the H1N1 strain began. As a result of infection, 2 627 people died in 140 regions of the planet. And so, in 2020, a new outbreak of respiratory disease caused by the so-called “coronavirus 2019-nCoV”.
Summarize
Summing up, we note that the causes of some epidemics could not be identified. Advances in medicine have made it possible to permanently rid the world's population of some deadly diseases, but viruses, adapting to new conditions of existence, are now becoming the causes of epidemiological outbreaks. The main thing is not to succumb to panic and observe simple standards of personal hygiene.
The editors of most-beauty.ru very much hope that all the deadliest epidemics for Mankind will remain only in history. In the meantime, we are expecting you to comment on this article.