Loss of lives is probably the hardest thing to deal with.
And when this happens on a large scale, it becomes one of the darkest moments in history.
But while many of these incidents happen because of wars, epidemics are also responsible for
taking away many people from this world.
10.
The Black Death Perhaps one of the worst pandemics to have ever threatened humanity
the Black Death cast its shadow over the entire Eurasia from 1346 to 1353.
An estimated 75 to 200 million people in the region lost their lives to the plague which
was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
It is believed that the plague started in the dry plains of central Asia and travelled
through the silk road to reach Crimea by 1343.
And from there, it was carried by the fleas borne by the black rat to other parts of Europe
and Asia on the merchant ships.
The plague was identified in its victims by the appearance of tumours in the groin and
armpits and then progressed to other parts of the body in the form of black spots.
This was followed by high fevers and vomiting and most of the victims were dead between
2 to 7 days of being infected.
One of the worst effects of the plague was that many considered the Jews, Friars, foreigners,
beggars and pilgrims to be the cause of it because of which they were persecuted by the higher class.
But none of it mattered because there was no known cause or cure for the plague at that time.
Such was the impact of the plague that it almost cut Europe’s population by half.
The sight of Doctors dressed in ankle length overcoats with bird like masks
and a wide hat was a dread for the people of Europe and Asia
as it meant that the plague was not far from them.
Thankfully, recent medical advances have made it possible for the early detection of the
plague and it can also be cured now.
9.
The Plague of Justinian The times of 542 AD in the Byzantine Empire
was one of the worst imaginable.
People were scared to wake up every day because there was no way of knowing if they would
live to see the dawn of another day.
The reason was the Yersinia Pestis, the bacteria responsible for the bubonic plague.
What was worse was that it wasn’t the only outbreak.
Periodic outbreaks until the 8th century was one of the reasons for the shifting power equations in Europe.
It is believed that the epidemic first came into the city of Constantinople through infected
rats on the grain ships arriving from Egypt.
And while it is uncertain how many people lost their lives due to the plague, it is
estimated that almost 5000 people died every day in just the city of Constantinople alone!
It was one of the worst calamities to have befallen the people of the Byzantine Empire
and even today, people shudder at the very thought of the Plague of Justinian.
8.
Typhus As if war itself is not enough to cause massive
loss of human lives, the epidemic typhus has also resulted in adding to the casualties after a war.
It is spread through human lice and is caused by the organism Rickettsia prowazekii.
The symptoms of the infection include severe headache, fever, rash, cough, muscle pain and even death.
The disease is spread when body lice feeds off an infected person and when this lice
jumps onto another person, the infection spreads.
Typhus usually kills the lice, but it still remains viable for several weeks.
There have been many instances when typhus has killed many people and some of the most
gruesome ones are the Spanish siege of Moorish Granada in 1489 where over 17,000 troops died
due to it, and in Canada when it killed over 20,000 people in 1847.
But perhaps the worst was during the World War I when it claimed the lives of almost
three million in Russia alone.
Thankfully, a vaccine was developed during the Second World War and that has seen a decline
in the number of typhus cases.
7.
The Russian Plague Epidemic The bubonic plague is probably one of the
worst things you can hear and the epidemic reared its ugly head in central Russia between 1970 and 1972.
The first signs of the plague were discovered in January 1770 in Moldova when it was contracted
by the prisoners of wars.
When the prison doctors found out about the outbreak, they ordered an immediate quarantine.
However, while these quarantines were enough during peace time, the war caused all the
attention to be diverted to the borders.
And hence, the plague spread to inside Russia.
By September, 1971, the plague had gone from bad to worse and it claimed over 20,000 lives in just that month.
The people soon began to protest against the mishandling of the plague by the government
and it led to the Plague riots.
It was a really bad time for the people and the Russian Plague is one of the worst instances
of the plague claiming innocent lives.
6.
1918 Flu Pandemic The word flu doesn’t really induce fear, right?
But imagine over 500 million people suffering from it all over the world!
In 1918, an unusually deadly influenza virus gripped the world and it was the first of
the 2 H1N1 influenza virus outbreaks in the world.
It killed almost 50 to 100 million people in the world and it decreased life expectancy by about 12 years in the US.
The epidemic is believed to have started in a troop staging and hospital camp in France
where doctors reported the onset of a new disease with high mortality, which was later
recognized as the Spanish Flu.
And what was worse was that the virus was air borne, which meant that anyone who was
infected could spread it to others by just coughing.
And the huge troop movements during the First World War saw the virus spreading to almost
all corners of the globe.
The flu was so bad that it infected almost one third of the world and with its high mortality
rate of 10%, it basically killed almost 3% of the human population of that time.
5.
1916 Polio Epidemic Thanks to the vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas
Salk in the 1950s, polio is not so much of a threat today.
But in 1916, it devastated a lot of families in the US.
The epidemic was centred in New York with the first case being diagnosed in Brooklyn.
It caused mass panic with over 9000 cases in New York alone.
Altogether, almost 7200 people lost their lives in the US due to Polio.
There is no cure for Polio even today and it was only a mass immunization drive started in 1988
that has seen it almost eradicated.
In 1916, the mass hysteria saw to many cities being closed off and people being scared of
letting children out of the houses.
In fact, over 80000 pets were also confiscated when people wrongly believed that animals
could spread the virus.
Thankfully, polio is on its way to becoming history but those suffering from it will never forget the fears!
4.
Memphis Yellow Fever During the 1800s, Memphis was almost a sewer
city with extremely poor hygiene conditions.
It was the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and subsequently, yellow fever.
In the epidemic of 1828, over 650 were affected and considering that the population was under
a 1000 at that time, you can understand its impact.
But the worst yellow fever epidemic in Memphis came in 1878 when over 17000 cases were reported
when the population was 47,000!
Yellow fever originated in Africa and came via slave ships to the US.
Memphis was an idea place for it to spread and it caused major devastation and excursions from Memphis.
Although there was an upside to it.
Because of the fever, only 7 policemen were fit for duty in Memphis and hence, it led
to black men being enrolled in the police for the first time in Memphis.
3.
The First Cholera Pandemic Imagine a pandemic starting in India and spreading
to almost the entire of Asia.
The first cholera pandemic of 1817-1824 was a huge disaster which affected almost every country in Asia.
It is believed that this pandemic began in the Ganges River near Calcutta and spread
wildly because of the kumbh mela where thousands gather together.
Soon, the disease spread to Bombay, the other coast of India and from there to other parts
of Asia with the earliest victims being diagnosed in Siam.
Thankfully, the spread of the disease stopped in 1824 probably due to the cold winter which
killed the bacteria in the water.
There are no official estimates of the number of deaths due to Cholera, but at least 30,000
were infected in Bangkok alone.
2.
HIV This is a pandemic that we are still dealing with.
There is no cure till date and although it has become somewhat manageable, it is one
of the worst news that a visit to the doctor can bring.
The disease was first reported in 1981 when increasing number of homosexual men started
succumbing to minor infections.
As of 2001, over 60 million people in the world have been infected and since the virus
causes the body’s immune system to shut down, the fatality is quite high.
An estimate says that over 25 million have met their ends due to AIDS.
The disease may have originated in Africa, but today it affects people in the entire
world and is spread mostly through sexual contact.
Let us hope that a cure or vaccination soon develops!
1.
The Antonine Plague During the rule of Marcus Antonine of Rome,
an illness spread which was highly fatal, killing almost 25% of those infected.
Almost 5 million people died in total due to an illness which was probably brought to
Rome by the troops who were returning from campaigns in the Near East.
While no one till date can actually say what caused the illness, it is believed to be either
smallpox or measles.
It was probably because of this that many turned to magic potions and spells to keep
themselves safe from it.
One of the impacts of this epidemic was that Marcus Antonine gave a lot more emphasis on
the building of temples and shrines devoted to the Roman gods and when even that failed
to check its progress, a lot of the people started to turn to Christianity and that was
probably the reason why Christianity spread so rapidly in the empire at that time.
If you think we missed out any great epidemic which threatened human lives, do let us know
in the comments.
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