What misfortunes mankind had to face long before the pandemic of the XXI century

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Looking back at the history of mankind, it would be difficult to find an era, civilization or community that was not affected by the outbreak of an infectious disease. From bubonic plague to influenza and cholera, epidemics and pandemics around the world have taken place in various shapes, sizes and deaths. But sometimes the death toll alone does not reflect the true, long-term impact that specific infectious disease outbreaks have had on the exposed population or those in the vicinity.

So what has been the most significant infectious disease of all centuries? What impact have these diseases had on the populations, economies and environment of the communities they have changed forever? And what kind of world is left for those who survived these pandemics? The answers to these questions have been troubling humanity for many centuries, which has been struggling for centuries to invent or find the very panacea for everything that was, is and will be …

1. Leprosy / Lepra, 1000 years

Despite the fact that the origin of leprosy remains a mystery to this day, nevertheless, the consequences of the outbreak of this disease have left a big mark in the history of mankind. A "plague" in Medieval Europe, it long remained a public health problem. In an attempt to suppress the spread of the disease, quarantined leper colonies were established. Unfortunately, without any treatment options, those affected by the disease were forced to suffer painful skin lesions that made them susceptible to other infections. Although leprosy is still widespread today, it is highly treatable with antibiotics.

2. Influenza, 1100-1200

While large-scale disease outbreaks were relatively minor during the 1100s and 1200s, the variety of diseases present during this time almost made up for this. There was a constant presence of well-known diseases such as measles, smallpox and ergotism, but fears of these ailments were almost surpassed by the prevalence of various flu outbreaks that continued throughout Europe for much of the Middle Ages, until the 1400s. … It is interesting to note that at the same time, many European cities were making tremendous efforts to improve public health conditions and residents' access to water, in an attempt to somehow prevent infections.

3. Black Death, 1300 years

The death toll is estimated to range from seventy-five to two hundred million. The Black Death swept across Europe in the mid-1300s and had a lasting and devastating impact on the environment, including humans and livestock. Lasted for only about four years, this outbreak of plague, known as "the second of the three great plague diseases", first entered Italy in 1347 through sailors working abroad in areas around China and India. Sailors arriving with black boils and spots on their skin inspired doctors to name this devastating outbreak. It is believed that almost half of Europe's population was killed as the disease spread so quickly that people died within weeks, days, or even hours.

4. Syphilis, 1400 years

The second half of the 1400s was marked by a stable and then a sharp spread of an infectious sexually transmitted disease - syphilis. It was often referred to as the "Naples disease" or "French disease" as it first became widespread among the soldiers of the French army of King Charles VIII when they attempted to capture Naples in 1494. Soon after the army gained control of its target territory, symptoms of syphilis began spread, and the infection began to prevail. From here, when soldiers returned home, they tended to become carriers of syphilis and thus it continued to spread throughout European communities. Then, with the invention of the printing press and a newfound ability to more easily communicate medical information to the masses, syphilis became the primary public health crisis in communities across Europe. And because of its uncertain origin, people began to associate it with peoples and countries in which they either believed, or came from them, or for which they had existing prejudices. Consequently, all this led to massive brawls, fights and showdowns.

5. Columbus Exchange, 1500

The Columbian Exchange (Great Exchange or Columbian Exchange) marks a particularly difficult period in human history, the impact of which is still felt today. During this time, the various factions of humanity, which for a long time had been separated by land and sea, reunited again. The term "Columbian Exchange", coined by the historian Alfred Crosby, refers specifically to the sudden globalization of not only people and technology, but also animals, plants and diseases as a result of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. As European colonialists and traders expanded their possessions in America, Africa and Asia, with the help of faster ships, and stronger weapons, they brought with them a number of diseases, their livestock and plants, which quickly devastated the local population with whom they met, largely due to the that they did not have the immunity built for these specific diseases. Some of the most devastating among them included smallpox, measles, influenza, and typhoid fever. This deadly combination of diseases has destroyed many civilizations and claimed millions of lives.

6. The bubonic plague, 1600

As one of the most famous infectious diseases in human history, the bubonic plague has made a name for itself in both its scale and its devastation. The most historically significant of the many outbreaks of plague can be attributed to the epidemic that struck London and, to a lesser extent, Europe as a whole in the mid-1660s. Known as the Great Plague of London, this type of bubonic plague broke out in London in 1665 and spread so quickly. that almost 20% of the city's inhabitants died. This resulted in the city's infrastructure being unable to process bodies fast enough to contain the disease, leading to mass graves throughout the city. By 1666, the spread of the plague had finally slowed down, putting an end to the previously progressive disease.

7. Influenza, 1700

Until the 1700s, there was not yet an epidemic large enough and far-reaching to qualify as a pandemic. However, that all changed in 1729 with the rapid spread of the flu outbreak. Originating in Russia, the influenza infection reached pandemic proportions within six months as it infected populations across Europe and the United States before being brought under control a year later, in 1730, and a similar epidemic occurred a few decades later, in 1781, on the other a much larger outbreak of influenza that is believed to have originated in China before spreading throughout Europe and has resulted in tens of millions of infections across Europe, with particularly high mortality rates among young people.

8. Cholera, 1800s

Defining cholera as a pandemic is difficult because each individual outbreak may appear small at first, but when viewed as a larger population of outbreaks, the numbers are staggering. The disease became especially troubling during the 1800s, when at least five large-scale outbreaks killed nearly a million people. The first known outbreak, which occurred between 1817 and 1823, began in the Ganges region of India, spreading rapidly throughout the country until it eventually reached widespread infection through trade and colonization in neighboring regions, including Southeast Asia. Middle East, Africa and Europe. More recent outbreaks continued throughout the 19th century. The 1852-1859 pandemic, which was reported as the deadliest of the century, also led to a particularly impressive public health epidemiological discovery, thanks to the work of a British physician named John Snow. The outbreak led to a significant increase in deaths in London, and in an attempt to control its spread, Snow worked to trace its origins, guided by a premonition that the city's water supply had something to do with its spread. By mapping the spread of the disease and comparing it to the city's water pumping systems, Snow was able to pinpoint the precise water pump responsible for disease transmission, and with its removal, the disease virtually disappeared.

9. Spanish flu, HIV, AIDS, 1900

The worst pandemic in human history is estimated to be the Spanish flu, which ravaged the European and American continents from 1918 to 1920, killing between twenty and fifty million people in two years, two to four times more than in the entire First World War. It is believed to have originated in China as a form of bird flu, but spread quickly as workers and employees were transported across continents. Despite its sudden and widespread impact on the world's population, the disease quickly dissipated by the end of 1919 due to high death tolls and developed immunity In addition to the Spanish flu, the 1900s also saw an increase in the HIV / AIDS epidemic, which remains less large-scale with an estimated thirty-five million deaths worldwide, but this pandemic has had a significant social, cultural and medical impact on the modern world. HIV / AIDS infects people by damaging the immune system and making the body more susceptible to other diseases that would otherwise be curable. Today there are a number of treatments available, but unfortunately there is still no reliable cure for this disease.

10. Tuberculosis, Ebola, coronavirus

Despite the fact that tuberculosis is both curable and preventable disease, it is still among the TOP 10 most deadly infectious diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO). Due in part to its easy transmission by airborne droplets and several subtle initial symptoms, people can go undiagnosed for extended periods of time, inadvertently infecting others. In 2018 alone, there were an estimated ten million new diagnoses and 1.5 million deaths worldwide from tuberculosis, most of which affected people in developing countries. In addition, there is an increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which has led WHO to redouble its prevention efforts with a formal “end TB” strategy.

Other infectious disease outbreaks common during this time include Ebola, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and coronavirus, although globally none of these have had such a profound impact on global health as tuberculosis. The significant social and cultural impact of the Internet and social media era has led to increased attention to these and other infectious disease outbreaks around the world, despite their smaller long-term overall coverage.

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