20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics history

20 all time worst epidemics in history....

Epidemics,worst epidemics in history .Basically 'epidemics ' word is derived from Greek , 'epi' which means 'upon' and 'demos' which means the people and the whole it forms a word 'epidemos' which means ' upon the population'.
 Epidemics refers to affecting many people at the same time and spreading from person to person in a locality.

List of all time worst epidemics in history...

1) Prehistoric epidemic: circa 3000 BC

About 5,000 years ago, an epidemic wiped out 
a prehistoric village in China. The bodies of the dead were stuffed inside a house that was later burned down. No age group was spared, as the skeletons of juveniles, young adults and middle-age people  were found inside the house. The archaeological site is now called "Hamin Mangha" and is one of the best-preserved prehistoric sites in northeastern China. Archaeological and anthropological study indicates that the epidemic happened quickly enough that there was no time for proper burials, and the site was not inhabited again. 

Before the discovery of Hamin Mangha, another prehistoric mass burial that dates to roughly the same time period was found at a site called Miaozigou, in northeastern China. Together, these discoveries suggest that an epidemic ravaged the entire region.

2) Plague of Athens : 430 BC

The Plague of Athens was  an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC) when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. The plague killed an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people and is believed to have entered Athens main city through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies.^[1] Much of the eastern Mediterranean also saw an outbreak of the disease, albeit with less impact.^[2] The plague had serious effects on Athens' society, resulting in a lack of adherence to laws and religious belief; in response laws became stricter, resulting in the punishment of non-citizens claiming to be Athenian. The plague returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/426 BC. Some 30 pathogens have been suggested as causing the plague.^[3]
3) Antoine Plague : AD 165- 180

The Antonine Plague, which flared up during the reign of Marcus Aurelius from 165 AD and continued under the rule of his son Commodus, played such a major role that the pathocenosis in the Ancient World was changed. The spread of the epidemic was favoured by the occurrence of two military episodes in which Marcus Aurelius himself took part: the Parthian War in Mesopotamia and the wars against the Marcomanni in northeastern Italy, in Noricum and in Pannonia. Accounts of the clinical features of the epidemic are scant and disjointed, with the main source being Galen, who witnessed the plague. Unfortunately, the great physician provides us with only a brief presentation of the disease, his aim being to supply therapeutic approaches, thus passing over the accurate description of the disease symptoms. Although the reports of some clinical cases treated by Galen lead us to think that the Antonine plague was caused by smallpox, palaeopathological confirmation is lacking. Some archaeological evidence (such as terracotta finds) from Italy might reinforce this opinion. In these finds, some details can be observed, suggesting the artist's purpose to represent the classic smallpox pustules, typical signs of the disease. The extent of the epidemic has been extensively debated: the majority of authors agree that the impact of the plague was severe, influencing military conscription, the agricultural and urban economy, and depleting the coffers of the State. The Antonine plague affected ancient Roman traditions, also leaving a mark on artistic expression; a renewal of spirituality and religiousness was recorded. These events created the conditions for the spread of monotheistic religions, such as Mithraism and Christianity. This period, characterized by health, social and economic crises, paved the way for the entry into the Empire of neighbouring barbarian tribes and the recruitment of barbarian troops into the Roman army; these events particularly favoured the cultural and political growth of these populations. The Antonine Plague may well have created the conditions for the decline of the Roman Empire and, afterwards, for its fall in the West in the fifth century AD

4) Plague of Cyprian : AD 250 -270

The Plague of Cyprian is the name given to a pandemic, probably of smallpox, that afflicted the Roman Empire from AD 251 onwards. It was still raging in 270, when it claimed the life of emperor Claudius II Gothicus (ruled 268-70). The plague caused widespread manpower shortages in agriculture and the Roman army. It is named after St. Cyprian, an early Christian writer who witnessed and described the plague. In 251 to 266, at the height of the outbreak, 5,000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome. Cyprian's biographer, Pontius the deacon, wrote of the plague at Carthage:
5) Plague of Justinian :AD 541-542

The plague is named after the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (reigned A.D. 527-565). Under his reign, the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest extent, controlling territory that stretched from the Middle East to Western Europe. Justinian constructed a great cathedral known as Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), the empire's capital. Justinian also got sick with the plague  and survived; however, his empire gradually lost territory in the time after the plague struck Byzantine Empire was ravaged by the bubonic plague, which marked the start of its decline. The plague reoccurred periodically afterward. Some estimates suggest that up to 10% of the world's population died. 
6) The black death : 1346-1353

The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. The plague arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on the docks were met with a horrifying surprise: Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus. Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe – almost one-third of the continent’s population.
7) Cocoliziti epidemic : 1545 - 1548

The infection that caused the cocoliztli epidemic was a form of viral hemorrhagic fever that killed 15 million inhabitants of Mexico and Central America. Among a population already weakened by extreme drought, the disease proved to be utterly catastrophic. "Cocoliztli" is the Aztec word for "pest." 

A recent study that examined DNA from the skeletons of victims found that they were infected with a subspecies of Salmonella known as S. paratyphi C, which causes enteric fever, a category of  that includes typhoid. Enteric fever can cause high fever, dehydration and gastrointestinal problems and is still a major health threat today. 

8) American Plague : 1770-1772

In marked contrast to the clipped, suspenseful pace of his Inside the Alamo (reviewed above), Murphy here adopts a leisurely, lyrical tone to chronicle the invisible spread of the deadly disease that not only crippled Philadelphia (then the temporary capital of the U.S.) but also set off a constitutional crisis. The author evokes the stifling August heat as well as the boiling controversy surrounding President Washington's decision not to support the French in the war against Britain. The residents, so distracted by the controversy, did not take note of the rising numbers of dead animals lying in open "sinks," or sewers; swarms of insects festering, and a growing population of ill citizens climbing until the church bells tolled grim news of death almost constantly. Murphy injects the events with immediacy through his profiles of key players, such as local doctors who engaged in fierce debates as to the cause, treatment and nature of the "unmerciful enemy"—among them the famous Benjamin Rush. The text documents many acts of heroism, including the Free African Society's contributions of food, medicine and home care: the Society was rewarded afterwards only with injustice. Archival photographs and facsimiles of documents bring the story to life, and a list of further reading points those interested in learning more in the right direction. This comprehensive history of the outbreak and its aftermath lays out the disputes within the medical community and, as there is still no cure, offers a cautionary note. Ages 10-14. 
9)Great Plague of London

• The Great Plague was an epidemic that spread in England between 1665 and 1666.
• It led to the deaths of between 75,000 and 100,000 people, which was more than a fifth of the entire population of London at the time.
• Historically, it was believed that the disease was an infection of bubonic plague caused by the spread of a bacillus called Yersinia pestis transmitted through the bites of fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) living on black rats, or through the bite of rats or other rodents.
• The plague of 1665-1666, however, spread in a reduced manner compared to the Black Plague that struck Europe between 1347 and 1353.

10) Great Plague of Marseille : 1720 - 1723

The Great Plague of Marseilles was the last of the significant European outbreaks of bubonic plague . Arriving in Marseille , France in 1720, the disease killed 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding provinces. ] However, Marseille quickly recovered from the plague outbreak. Economic activity took only a few years to recover, as did West Indies and Latin America. By 1765, the growing population was back at its pre-1720 level.
11)) Russian Plague: 1770-1772

Deadly epidemicsy in history . The plague spread to the capital of the Russian state from either Persia or Crimea. According to contemporary accounts, it came “like a flame driven by the wind.” In the summer of 1654, when the body count began to number in the thousands, the tsar’s court, the boyars, and all wealthy townspeople fled the city. By moving to Moscow’s suburbs and other cities, they in fact helped spread the infection throughout the land.

The mad stampede of Streltsy officers and prison guards plunged the city into chaos, looting, and banditry. “The once crowded streets became deserted ... dogs and pigs devoured the dead and went wild, so no one dared to venture out alone for fear of being gnawed to death,” wrote Patriarch Macarius III of Antioch, who was then in the Russian state.

In the end, the authorities had no choice but to fight the epidemic. Quarantines were established in the infected areas, which were surrounded by outposts and blocked off by soldiers. The houses and homesteads of those killed by the plague were ruthlessly burned down. The smoke of burning wormwood and juniper was used to fumigate objects and clothing. Troops restored order to the capital.

By the fall of 1654, the epidemic had been largely contained. The plague did not penetrate westwards, where the army of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was laying siege to the then Polish-Lithuanian city of Smolensk; the northern territories (Novgorod and Pskov) remained untouched.

Although January of the following year saw some further outbreaks, the scale was nothing like as bad, and Moscow was not affected. The exact number of victims of the epidemic will never be known for sure, but researchers put the figure at between 25,000 and 700,000.  It is believed that more than 85% of the population of Moscow perished.

12) Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic:1793

During the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, 5,000 or more people were listed in the official register of deaths between August 1 and November 9. The vast majority of them died of yellow fever, making the epidemic in the city of 50,000 people one of the most severe in United States history. By the end of September, 20,000 people had fled the city. The mortality rate peaked in October, before frost finally killed the mosquitoes and brought an end to the epidemic in November. Doctors tried a variety of treatments, but knew neither the origin of the fever nor that it was transmitted by mosquitoes (which was not verified until the late nineteenth century).

The mayor and a committee of two dozen organized a fever hospital at Bush Hill and other crisis measures. The assistance of the Free African Society was requested by the city and readily agreed to by the members, based on the mistaken assumption that native Africans would have the same partial immunity to the new disease as many had to malaria, the most common source of fever epidemics during the summer months.^[2] Black nurses aided the sick and the group's leaders hired additional men to take away corpses, which most people would not touch. Blacks in the city died at the same rate as whites, about 240 altogether.

Some neighboring towns refused to let refugees in from Philadelphia, for fear they were carrying the fever. Major port cities such as Baltimore and New York had quarantines against refugees and goods from Philadelphia although New York sent financial aid to the city.

13)Flu epidemic : 1889- 1890

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919.  In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.

It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic.

While the 1918 H1N1 virus has been synthesized and evaluated, the properties that made it so devastating are not well understood. With no vaccine to protect against influenza infection and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that can be associated with influenza infections, control efforts worldwide were limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings, which were applied unevenly.

14) American polio epidemic 1916

worst epidemics in history.The history of polio (poliomyelitis) infections extends into prehistory. Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the 20th century,^[1] the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. Over millennia, polio survived quietly as an endemic pathogen until the 1900s when major epidemics began to occur in Europe.^[1] Soon after, widespread epidemics appeared in the United States. By 1910, frequent epidemics became regular events throughout the developed world primarily in cities during the summer months. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyze or kill over half a million people worldwide every year.^[2]

The fear and the collective response to these epidemics would give rise to extraordinary public reaction and mobilization spurring the development of new methods to prevent and treat the disease and revolutionizing medical philanthropy. Although the development of two polio vaccines has eliminated poliomyelitis in all but three countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria),^[3] the legacy of poliomyelitis remains in the development of modern rehabilitation therapy and in the rise of disability rights movements worldwide.

15) Spanish flu : 1918- 1920

The outbreak began in 1918, during the final months of World War I, and historians now believe that the conflict may have been partly responsible for spreading the virus. On the Western Front, soldiers living in cramped, dirty and damp conditions became ill. This was a direct result of weakened immune systems from malnourishment. Their illnesses, which were known as "la grippe," were infectious, and spread among the ranks. Within around three days of becoming ill, many soldiers would start to feel better, but not all would make it. 

During the summer of 1918, as troops began to return home on leave, they brought with them the undetected virus that had made them ill. The virus spread across cities, towns and villages in the soldiers' home countries. Many of those infected, both soldiers and civilians, did not recover rapidly. The virus was hardest on young adults between the ages of 20 and 30 who had previously been healthy. 

In 2014, a new theory about the origins of the virus suggested that it first emerged in China, National Geographic reported. Previously undiscovered records linked the flu to the transportation of Chinese laborers, the Chinese Labour Corps, across Canada in 1917 and 1918. The laborers were mostly farm workers from remote parts of rural China, according to Mark Humphries' book "The Last Plague" (University of Toronto Press, 2013). They spent six days in sealed train containers as they were transported across the country before continuing to France. There, they were required to dig trenches, unload trains, lay tracks, build roads and repair damaged tanks. In all, over 90,000 workers were mobilized to the Western Front. 

Humphries explains that in one count of 25,000 Chinese laborers in 1918, some 3,000 ended their Canadian journey in medical quarantine. At the time, because of racial stereotypes, their illness was blamed on "Chinese laziness" and Canadian doctors did not take the workers' symptoms seriously. By the time the laborers arrived in northern France in early 1918, many were sick, and hundreds were soon dying.

16) Asian flu : 1957 - 1958

Although we have had 30 years to prepare for what should be done in the event of an influenza pandemic, I think we have all been rushing around trying to improvise investigations with insufficient time to do it properly. We can only hope that people will have taken advantage of their opportunities and at the end it may be possible to construct an adequate explanation of what happened.’1

So wrote J Corbett McDonald of the Public Health Laboratory Service, to Ian Watson, Director of the College of General Practitioners' Epidemic Observation Unit in the autumn of 1957. He was referring to that year's Asian flu pandemic. In the event, neither the Unit nor the PHLS undertook any large scale research projects during the outbreak and later studies were limited. The Unit's retrospective investigation had a response from 42 practices, of which only 29 provided useable data. Could or should more have been done? By 1957, unlike 1918, there was a global network of laboratories linked to the World Influenza Research Centre in London, which aimed to create a clearing house for research and tracking the virus.

In 1957 it had all seemed initially quiet on the UK influenza front. Dr McDonald's quarterly report (November 1956—March 1957) mentioned a ‘remarkably low level of respiratory illness so far this winter.’ However, a Times newspaper comment (17 April) that ‘an influenza epidemic has affected thousands of Hong Kong residents’ heralded the start of rapid movement across the East with 100 000 cases in Taiwan by mid-May and over a million in India by June. Five months after the Hong Kong outbreak it was reckoned to have traversed the globe. As an entirely new strain there was no immunity in the populace and the first vaccines were not distributed until August in the US and October in the UK, and then on an extremely limited basis.

The first cases in the UK were in late June, with a serious outbreak in the general population occurring in August. From mid-September onwards the virus spread from the North, West, and Wales to the South, East, and Scotland. One GP recalled ‘we were amazed at the extraordinary infectivity of the disease, overawed by the suddenness of its outset and surprised at the protean nature of its symptomatology.’2 It peaked the week ending 17 October with 600 deaths reported in major towns in England and Wales. There was some evidence of a limited return in the winter.

By early 1958 it was estimated that ‘not less than 9 million people in Great Britain had … Asian influenza during the 1957 epidemic. Of these, more than 5.5 million were attended by their doctors. About 14 000 people died of the immediate effects of their attack.’3 Not only was £10 000 000 spent on sickness benefit, but also with factories, offices and mines closed the economy was hit: ‘Setback in Production — “Recession through Influenza”’ (Manchester Guardian, 29 November).

Despite Watson's early prediction that ‘in the end, and in spite of the scare stuff in the lay press, we will have our epidemic of influenza, of a type not very different from what we know already, with complications in the usual age groups,’4 the core group of main sufferers was aged 5–39 years with 49% between 5–14 years. In London, 110 000 children were off school suspected of having influenza. With adults there was usually a connection to children; for example, parents, teachers, doctors, or a closed group such as the armed forces and football teams. As the Manchester Guardian put it: ‘Fit Go Down with Flu’ (20th August). There was also a rise in influenzal deaths in January 1958 of an older age group but it was not clear how much of this was the usual seasonal deaths attributed to influenza as opposed to Asian flu.5

17)AIDS pandemic and epidemic :1981- present day

Among the viruses plaguing humans, HIV is a recent acquisition. Its outstanding success as an infection poses immense scientific challenges to human health and raises the question “What comes next?”

In Darwinian terms, the recent emergence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is an outstanding success. HIV has readily exploited various niches provided by our lifestyle in the developed world, including air travel, narcotic dependence and steamy, promiscuous bath houses (Shilts, 1987). However, it is wreaking the most havoc among the world's poorest and most underprivileged communities, in which life expectancy has dropped by 20 years on average. The death toll from HIV/AIDS worldwide is equivalent to three World Trade Centre attacks every day (Table 1). Great advances have been made in our understanding of the molecular biology of the virus, and these have been rapidly translated into saving lives through screening and therapy, but HIV's spread among humans seems set to continue unless we can develop a truly efficacious vaccine. With no end to the pandemic in sight, the societal and medical impact of AIDS is profound, and could affect human health and development in further surprising and unfortunate ways. HIV/AIDS presents a frightening although fascinating danse macabre of sex, drugs and death.

18)H1N1 swine flu pandemic -2009-2010

Researchers used state-of-the-art genetic analysis to identify the precise location and the main molecular transformations that allowed a pig influenza virus to jump into humans. They found that the virus responsible was a mix of one North American swine virus that had jumped between birds, humans, and pigs, and a second Eurasian swine virus, that circulated for more than 10 years in pigs in Mexico before jumping into humans. Previously, the most closely related ancestor viruses to the 2009 H1N1 virus were identified in Asian swine, but they were not as close genetically to the human 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus as the swine Mexican isolates found in this study.

The only other H1N1 pandemic flu known to date was the "Spanish" flu of 1918 that killed between 50 and 100 million people -- 3 to 5 percent of the world's population.

Influenza viruses infect up to 500 million people annually.

"Knowing where and how an animal influenza virus infects humans and spreads all over the world helps us understand how we can reduce risk of these pandemics," says the study's senior author, Adolfo García-Sastre, PhD, Director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Chair and Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), and Professor of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

19) West African Ebola epidemic :2014-2016

Researchers used state-of-the-art genetic analysis to identify the precise location and the main molecular transformations that allowed a pig influenza virus to jump into humans. They found that the virus responsible was a mix of one North American swine virus that had jumped between birds, humans, and pigs, and a second Eurasian swine virus, that circulated for more than 10 years in pigs in Mexico before jumping into humans. Previously, the most closely related ancestor viruses to the 2009 H1N1 virus were identified in Asian swine, but they were not as close genetically to the human 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus as the swine Mexican isolates found in this study.

The only other H1N1 pandemic flu known to date was the "Spanish" flu of 1918 that killed between 50 and 100 million people -- 3 to 5 percent of the world's population.

Influenza viruses infect up to 500 million people annually.

"Knowing where and how an animal influenza virus infects humans and spreads all over the world helps us understand how we can reduce risk of these pandemics," says the study's senior author, Adolfo García-Sastre, PhD, Director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Chair and Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), and Professor of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

20) Zika virus epidemic : 2015-present day

• Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, which bite during the day.
• Symptoms are generally mild and include fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. Symptoms typically last for 2–7 days. Most people with Zika virus infection do not develop symptoms.
• Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause infants to be born with microcephaly and other congenital malformations, known as congenital Zika syndrome. Infection with Zika virus is also associated with other complications of pregnancy including preterm birth and miscarriage.
• An increased risk of neurologic complications is associated with Zika virus infection in adults and children, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, neuropathy and myelitis.