The devastating history of pandemics
Overview of pandemics in human history, including the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The Black Death killed about one-third of Europe's people between 1347 and 1351.
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Transcript
The most recent example of a pandemic is the spread of COVID-19, commonly known as coronavirus. However, diseases have spread among human populations throughout history.
One of the earliest known examples was the spread of an infectious disease through Ethiopia, Egypt, and Libya. Eventually the disease reached the Mediterranean region and the city of Athens, where from 430 to 426 B.C.E., during the Peloponnesian War, roughly one-quarter of the city's population died from sickness while under siege by Sparta. With time, outbreaks of disease that spread across large geographic regions and that ultimately affect large numbers of people worldwide -- known as pandemics -- have become no more merciful. Encyclopaedia Britannica presents The History of Pandemics.
A famous example of a pandemic is the Black Death. Responsible for wiping out some 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population, the Black Death made its way to Sicily in 1347 and spread from there to mainland Europe like wildfire. Populations in Asia and North Africa were also devastated.
Following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in the late 1400s, the plague spread to native populations there. Europeans carried many other infectious diseases with them as well, including smallpox, typhus, cholera, and influenza. With no previous exposure -- and therefore no immunity -- to these diseases, native populations of North and South America were devastated by disease.
Some scientists even suggest that the effect was so great on the Native American population, with a death toll estimated at 56 million, that the climate moved into a cooling cycle due to a lack of crop rotation.
A wide array of hosts can carry and transmit disease, including insects, rodents, livestock, wildlife, and, of course, humans. Many different factors can contribute to the emergence of a pandemic, and some of these factors have fueled an increased occurrence of pandemics in the 20th and 21st centuries. In particular, the disruption of natural biodiversity, increased human-to-human contact in cities, and increased global travel have increased the spread of disease.
In recent history the 1918 influenza pandemic was very severe. Though the origin of the virus remains inconclusive, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. The first identified cases in the US were in military personnel. By the end of the pandemic, it is estimated, a third of the global population, some 500 million people, had the virus. Some estimates of the number of deaths were as high as 50 million worldwide, with 650,000 of them in the US.
While COVID-19 is on the tip of the tongue of everyone around the globe right now. This is only one instance in a history -- with many inflection points -- of pandemics.
One of the earliest known examples was the spread of an infectious disease through Ethiopia, Egypt, and Libya. Eventually the disease reached the Mediterranean region and the city of Athens, where from 430 to 426 B.C.E., during the Peloponnesian War, roughly one-quarter of the city's population died from sickness while under siege by Sparta. With time, outbreaks of disease that spread across large geographic regions and that ultimately affect large numbers of people worldwide -- known as pandemics -- have become no more merciful. Encyclopaedia Britannica presents The History of Pandemics.
A famous example of a pandemic is the Black Death. Responsible for wiping out some 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population, the Black Death made its way to Sicily in 1347 and spread from there to mainland Europe like wildfire. Populations in Asia and North Africa were also devastated.
Following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in the late 1400s, the plague spread to native populations there. Europeans carried many other infectious diseases with them as well, including smallpox, typhus, cholera, and influenza. With no previous exposure -- and therefore no immunity -- to these diseases, native populations of North and South America were devastated by disease.
Some scientists even suggest that the effect was so great on the Native American population, with a death toll estimated at 56 million, that the climate moved into a cooling cycle due to a lack of crop rotation.
A wide array of hosts can carry and transmit disease, including insects, rodents, livestock, wildlife, and, of course, humans. Many different factors can contribute to the emergence of a pandemic, and some of these factors have fueled an increased occurrence of pandemics in the 20th and 21st centuries. In particular, the disruption of natural biodiversity, increased human-to-human contact in cities, and increased global travel have increased the spread of disease.
In recent history the 1918 influenza pandemic was very severe. Though the origin of the virus remains inconclusive, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. The first identified cases in the US were in military personnel. By the end of the pandemic, it is estimated, a third of the global population, some 500 million people, had the virus. Some estimates of the number of deaths were as high as 50 million worldwide, with 650,000 of them in the US.
While COVID-19 is on the tip of the tongue of everyone around the globe right now. This is only one instance in a history -- with many inflection points -- of pandemics.