The covid-19 pandemic has inspired lots of comparisons to the 1918 flu, sometimes called the Spanish flu, which got its name not because it originated in Spain but because it was World War I, and Spain was the only country being honest about the toll the pandemic took on the country. Despite the common name of the pandemic, scientists are not entirely sure where the virus originated, though they do know it was caused by an H1N1 virus (similar to swine flu) that originated in birds. Sources: CDC, American Scientist, The Lancet, Social Science & Medicine, WHO, National Geographic, news and historical research. The Great Plague of Milan was so deadly, it is thought to be a major contributor to the decline in power of the Republic of Venice, which had risen to prominence during the Renaissance. Six of the seven major cholera pandemics have originated in India. There were so many victims that citizens of Constantinople could not keep up with burying them, so bodies were crammed into buildings or simply left in the open. Plague, the disease, was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality, or the Plague) was the deadliest pandemic recorded in human history. We are now within the seventh cholera pandemic. The Great Plague of Milan was a series of outbreaks of the bubonic plague (featured later in this list) that happened between 1629 and 1631. From the White House to the CDC, political and institutional failures cascaded through the system and opportunities to mitigate the pandemic were lost. “Sometimes, patients were bled with leeches,” the National Archives said. “A pestilence,” Procopius wrote of the plague, “by which the whole human race was near to being annihilated.” Researchers are still digging up evidence connected to the plague all these years later. While the plague ravaged the country, some towns were spared. The swift spread of the disease continues to astonish historians and epidemiologists. However, nowadays people do not get smallpox. When infected rats died, leaving the fleas hungry, fleas switched to feeding on human blood, spreading the plague they had picked up from the rodents. Because this outbreak occurred in the modern era (at least relative to the original Black Death), scientists had access to better research tools and methods. COVID-19 has us all thinking about public health, but looking back, there have been many pandemics before, and we persist in spite of them. Pneumonic plague … Deaths: 5 million • Cause: Measles and smallpox. Smallpox remained a problematic disease for centuries, with the last natural outbreak occurring in the United States in 1949. Trade and military routes over the years have contributed to spreading this disease throughout the world. The novel coronavirus has taken just a few months to sweep the globe. More than 2,000 people died daily. Before covid-19, this was the world’s most recent pandemic, infecting as much as 21 percent of the world’s population. It’s easy to forget that after the Dark Ages following the Black Death, Europe entered its Renaissance, one of the great periods of creativity and ingenuity in human history. Generations have been annihilated. Although the death toll is unknown, many estimates put it at more than 50 million and some as high as 100 million, making it the deadliest pandemic … It wasn’t until 1900 that U.S. Army researchers “pinpointed mosquitoes as the transmission vector for the disease,” according to a vaccine history project at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. “The ancient world,” one scholar wrote, “never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the plague.”, Josse Lieferinxe's "Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken," ca. Ferrara in northern Italy did not experience a single death from the plague because it implemented strict border controls, sanitation laws, and personal hygiene practices. Just over a month has passed since America's death toll hit 300,000, and health experts expect COVID-19 to kill half a million people in the U.S. by sometime in February. Today, HIV can be well managed in developed nations so it doesn’t progress to AIDS, but AIDS is still incredibly deadly in developing nations without access to adequate health care and preventative measures. It remains one of the great medical mysteries of all time. Frank M. Snowden, a Yale historian who studies pandemics, wrote in his book “Epidemics and Society” that definitive accounts of this plague have largely vanished. Empires have fallen. Plague of Cyprian: A.D. 250-271. Even President Woodrow Wilson was stricken, nearly derailing talks at the Paris Peace Conference, where the flu left him bedridden for days. Nobody has ever nailed down the exact cause, but symptoms recorded by a physician named Galen — gruesome skin sores, high fever, diarrhea and sore throats — strongly suggest it was smallpox and measles. The Black Death pandemic resulted in the deaths of up to 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Design and development by Brandon Ferrill. COVID-19 has us all thinking about public health, but looking back, there have been many pandemics before, and we persist in spite of them. The Hong Kong flu (H3N2) originated in China and was the second-worst flu pandemic of the 20th century, behind the famous 1918 Spanish flu featured later on this list. The Third Plague Pandemic, and arguably the most important in terms of what we know about the virus today, began in China in the 1850s. The adaptability of the flu is why flu shots change each year. Death Toll: Between 25 and 35 million 6. Schools are closed, businesses have shut their doors, and nobody knows what’s coming next. Today, bubonic plague is much rarer. HIV can spread through blood, sexual transmission, and from mother to child through birth or breastfeeding. Back then, nobody knew exactly how and why people came down with yellow fever. Deaths due to bubonic plague in India 1896-1904. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) first emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the late 1970s. Governments have cracked. Interestingly, this pandemic led to much quality scientific research about this and the previous plagues. 1880, likely from Cassell's "Illustrated History of England," depicts the streets during the Great Plague of London in 1665. (Josse Lieferinxe/The Walters Art Museum), Thought to be the world’s first episode of bubonic plague, its namesake was the Byzantine emperor who was in power when it hit, likely arriving in the form of infected fleas hitching rides across the world on the backs of rodents. Although we are no longer in the midst of a flu pandemic, H3N2 has stuck around as one strain of seasonal flu we see every year. Black Death, pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, taking a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time. President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson high-tailed it out of town, ultimately settling on Washington as the nation’s capital. The number of infected is staggering —as many as 500 million, with estimates of 50 million deaths worldwide, according to the CDC. This ancient pandemic swept through the Roman Empire in the late second century. Put it this way: That would be like wiping out roughly 65 percent of the current U.S. population. ... perhaps what gave the Black Death its name. (Photo Josse/Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images), (Josse Lieferinxe/The Walters Art Museum), (Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images), (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images), (Library of Congress/Library of Congress), (Library of Congress/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division), (VOLKER HARTMANN/DDP/AFP via Getty Images), ’You’re basically right next to the nuclear reactor.’, The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged. At that time, the Roman Empire spread far beyond Italy into the Mediterranean region, as well as parts of Africa and Asia. Before joining The Post in 2004, he was a reporter at The Boston Globe. The Asian Flu (1957-1958) Death Toll: 1.1 million 10. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images), Again, blame the rats with those pesky fleas on their backs: “They were attracted by city streets filled with rubbish and waste, especially in the poorest areas,” according to the National Archives in England. Death Toll: 95,000/year (more than 1 million historical total). For example, studying this plague led to the discovery of the bacteria responsible for historical plagues, Yersinia pestis. The Third Plague Pandemic, the world's last major outbreak, began in the mid-19th century and lasted well into the 20th. The bacteria moved quickly through rats and fleas feeding on the rats. The Third Plague - 12 million people killed, 1855 -1960 Beginning in Yunnan, China, this bubonic plague spread to every inhabited continent. However, the current pandemic originated in Indonesia. An influenza ward at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington on Nov. 1, 1918. Justinian I is often credited as the most influential Byzantine emperor, but his reign also coincided with one of the first well-documented outbreaks of plague. This pandemic … By the beginning of the 20th century, there were cases on all six inhabited continents, although its most devastating effects were in China and India. History tells us we don’t get to choose what happens to us or what period of history we are born in. The Russian Flu (1889-1890) Death Toll: 1 million 11. Children were encouraged to smoke to ward off bad air. As of April 15, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported 605,390 cases of COVID-19 in the United States. The Plague of Justinian is the first known outbreak of the plague that would later become the famous Black Death, as well as the Third Plague in the late 19th century. He also hosts Retropod, a daily podcast. Though 70,000 people in the United States ultimately died, “some predicted that the U.S. death toll would have reached 1 million without the vaccine that Hilleman called for,” according to the Philadelphia vaccine history project. (Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images), History Today, a monthly magazine of historical writing published in London, calls this pandemic “the greatest catastrophe ever.” The number of deaths — 200 million — is just astounding. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. Active trade and military movements contributed to the disease’s quick spread. Antonine Plague. “This system for long-distance trade was supplemented by a web of lively short and medium-distance trade that bound together populations all over the Old World,” Benedictow wrote, dubbing this the “golden age of bacteria.”, Explorers arrived to the New World bearing more than just turnips and grapes. The Antonine Plague (165-180) Death Toll: 5 million 8. The correct number is 35 million. Another deadly characteristic of this flu was that it had high mortality in a variety of age groups, not just the very young and old we expect to have weaker immune systems. “People thought impure air caused the disease and could be cleansed by smoke and heat. By far the deadliest pandemic of all time, the Black Death radically shaped the course of human history, plunging Europe into the Dark Ages. Death Toll: 75 000–100 000 The Peloponnesian War, recorded by Thucydides, was one of the most pivotal events of Greek history; a war waged between Athens and Sparta. Michael Rosenwald is an enterprise reporter writing about history, the social sciences, and culture. The plague was so deadly that today it is thought to contribute to the eventual fall of the Roman Empire, making this plague one of the major events of Western history. Armies and tradesman returning from Asia. The Columbian Exchange, or the exchange of animals and plants between Europe and the Americas as a result of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, led to one of the great world pandemics of all time. Even though the death toll was historic, most people who were infected by the pandemic virus survived; in the developed world, the overall mortality was about 2 percent. While scientists have synthesized the 1918 flu virus in the lab, they are still not certain exactly why this particular flu was so deadly. While the bulk of the deaths occurred between 541 and 542, this pandemic was stubborn, and did not fade entirely until 750. For now, we are social distancing, isolating, and worrying about ourselves, our families, and communities. Although cholera today does not majorly affect developed nations due to their access to clean water, the disease thrives in developing areas that lack reliable water sources and solid sanitation systems. This viral infection is endemic to South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Because native populations of South America had none of the immunities to Eurasian diseases that Europeans had developed over the centuries, they were highly susceptible to these diseases upon first contact. But it certainly won’t last forever. The cholera pandemic consists of a series of smaller pandemics that have been occurring on and off since 1817. But history shows that past pandemics have reshaped societies in profound ways. If you caught it, you had roughly two weeks to live. Cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. > Death toll: 2-3.5 million (33% to 60% of Japan population) > Disease/Cause: Smallpox > Affected area: Japan > Duration: 735-737 “Watchmen locked and kept guard over infected houses,” the National Archives said. The Third Plague Pandemic > Death toll: 12-15 million ... which intensified after the Black Plague as Jews were blamed for the pandemic. Spread by female mosquitoes, the disease gets its name because it often turns the skin of sufferers a distinct shade of yellow. For comparison, now roughly eight months into the current coronavirus pandemic, there have been at least 814,000 deaths, according to the latest … Like the Plague of Justinian, the Black Death was caused by the bubonic plague. The virus causes severe diarrhea and is spread through raw sewage, which creates a vicious cycle of infection in areas experiencing an outbreak. How many will die, how societies will change — those questions are impossible to fathom as the disease rages. The virus causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a disease in which the immune system gives out, causing people to die not from HIV itself, but from a variety of secondary infections such as pneumonia. Magical Thinking: Plague, Pandemic & Unconventional Cures from the Black Death to the Covid-19 When the pandemic strikes, and the trusted authorities are without a sure remedy, people extend their search for a cure, and in their desperation many resort to more unorthodox means of healing associated with alternative forms of authority and knowledge. “Although we may never know the exact magnitudes of the depopulation, it is estimated that upwards of 80–95 percent of the Native American population was decimated within the first 100–150 years following 1492,” according to a 2010 paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. (VOLKER HARTMANN/DDP/AFP via Getty Images). However, well after the Black Death, the plague continued to cause periodic pandemics throughout Europe and Asia, including the Great Plague of Milan. Like all flus, this virus was easily transmitted from person to person, causing it to spread rapidly throughout the world. “Historian and demographer [Noble] David Cook estimates that, in the end, the regions least affected lost 80 percent of their populations; those most affected lost their full populations; and a typical society lost 90 percent of its population.”, An engraving ca. Graphics reporting by Aaron Steckelberg. Isolation and quarantines were used to slow down transmission. “Something about their eyes tipped him off,” according to Smithsonian Magazine. Trade ships moving these rats around only perpetuated the spread throughout Europe and Asia. Up there especially, it … Almost exactly 100 years ago, one-third of the world's population found itself infected in a deadly viral pandemic. While the world continues to suffer from the onslaught of COVID-19, its toll has yet to approach the grim statistics of history's deadliest pandemic–the Black Death. While numerous plague outbreaks occurred in Europe during the 17th century, this was one of the worst. The Asian Flu virus originated in China in early 1956 before … The disease is thought to have been brought into the city of Mantua by French and German soldiers in the Thirty Years’ War, and it spread from there. It was the Spanish flu. How’d it get there? This is a rare example of effective disease control in history and is eerily reminiscent of what the world is going through with COVID-19. Within two weeks, the virus had moved throughout southeast Asia, and within two months it had made its way across the ocean into the Americas, later spreading to Europe, Africa, and Australia. Smallpox remains the only disease that has been successfully eradicated worldwide as a result of intense international vaccination and isolation efforts between the 1960s and 1980s. They also brought smallpox, measles and other viruses for which New World inhabitants had no immunity. Lt. Frank C. Morrison, a doctor on the destroyer Huntington — where half of the crew had been stricken with Asian flu — checks the temperatures of crewmen G.R. “It’s a powerless feeling, watching someone die”: An anesthesiologist on the frontline of coronavirus outbreak. This caused people to become desperate. The outbreak of the plague continued to spread in the following years to large parts of India, culminating in 1907, where the death toll reached more than one million. The overall mortality rate … 1879. However, diaries from Procopius, a noted historian back then, indicate that many thought the end of civilization was upon them. 5. (Library of Congress/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division). The 17th Century Great Plagues (1600) Death Toll: 3 millions 9. The pandemic is believed to have originated in Africa and then spread to Europe through infected rats on merchant ships. The Third Plague (1885) Death Toll: 12 million 7. Few societies have been spared by this highly infectious bacteria, which is transmitted via feces-contaminated water and causes severe diarrhea and vomiting. While this pandemic was much less deadly than the one in 1918, the virus was especially infectious, contributing to its spread around the world. Annual deaths due to the Third Plague Pandemic in Hong Kong 1894-1902. Historically, the prevalence of the virus among disenfranchised groups contributed to the explosion of the pandemic because it was not as quickly addressed as other pandemics, including modern ones such as COVID-19. The disease swept through South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean, killing millions. Named after St. Cyprian, a bishop of Carthage (a city in Tunisia) … Death Toll: 12 million The Third Plague refers to the most recent pandemic outbreak of bubonic plague, which began in 1885 in the Chinese province of Yunnan. Sniffing a sponge soaked in vinegar was also an option.”. We are all feeling the effects of the pandemic. Photo editing by Nick Kirkpatrick, Haley Hamblin and Troy Witcher. He is the founder and principal of, 10 Deadliest Pandemics In History Were Much Worse Than Coronavirus So Far, measles, smallpox, or a combination of both. Altogether, the third plague pandemic claimed around 12 million lives in India – it was a very Indian pandemic. By the year 541, the plague was killing up to 10,000 people a day. Influenza A pandemics have occurred multiple times throughout history when new, deadly strains of the influenza A virus evolved. It reached the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 541 A.D., and was soon claiming up to 10,000 lives per day—so many that unburied bodies were eventually … Death toll of select plague epidemics in Europe and North Africa 1665-1838. For example, at the start of the pandemic, 60 percent of Florence’s population died within a few months. A second major outbreak in AD588 went further, spreading up into France, leaving an estimated final death toll for the disease of about 25 million. It even built state-funded plague hospitals outside the city’s walls to prevent larger outbreaks from single cases (although the disease was thought to be caused by corrupted air rather than a bacterium). “His gut told him that these deaths meant the next big flu pandemic.” Hilleman requested samples of the virus be shipped to U.S. drugmakers right away so they could get a vaccine ready. “Parish officials provided food. 1497, depicts Saint Sebastian kneeling to pray before God on behalf of people suffering from or killed by the plague. In 1793, yellow fever swept through Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital, killing roughly 10 percent of the population. “Scientists working in Bavaria in 2005,” Snowden wrote, “identified the plague bacillus in skeletal remains from a sixth-century cemetery at Ascheim, strongly suggesting that the traditional diagnosis of bubonic plague is accurate.”, The plague in Tournai, then part of France, as depicted in "The Annales of Gilles de Muisit" from the mid-14th century. All we can do is prepare and persist. When the third cholera pandemic hit London in … In addition to its high death toll, what made the Black Death so remarkable was the speed with which it occurred. Mr. Johnson said even the 19th-century cholera outbreaks, with a smaller death toll, resulted in advances. (AP/AP), One man saw it coming: Maurice Hilleman. "En Route for Kansas — Fleeing From the Yellow Fever," by Sol Eytinge, ca. The flu came in two waves, starting in 1918 and ending in 1920. These have occurred across all 50 states and have resulted in 24,582 deaths. Death toll; Antonine Plague: 165-180: Believed to be either smallpox or measles: 5M: Japanese smallpox epidemic: 735-737: Variola major virus: 1M: Plague of Justinian: 541-542: Yersinia pestis bacteria / Rats, fleas: 30-50M: Black Death: 1347-1351: Yersinia pestis bacteria / Rats, fleas: 200M: New World Smallpox Outbreak: 1520 – onwards: Variola major virus: 56M: Great Plague of London ... Death toll of select plague … (Covid-19 disease modeling predicts U.S. deaths to potentially reach 240,000.) DEATHS FROM PANDEMICS, FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MODERN ERA, In "The Plague in Rome," painted in 1869, artist Jules Elie Delaunay creates an allegorical representation of the scourge breaking down doors. The virus killed up to one-third of the entire population of Canada’s northern Labrador region. (Photo Josse/Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images), Many historians trace the fall of the Roman empire back to the Antonine Plague, which swept Rome during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. “Health officials widely credited that vaccine with saving many lives.”, A crane lifts culled pigs into a container on a farm where 80 pigs died of swine fever on March 4, 2006 in Haltern, Germany. Let’s look at the 10 worst pandemics in human history. The epidemic that swept London in 1854 spawned the sort of epidemiological investigations that take place in disease outbreaks today. While doctors, lawyers and royalty fled town, the poor were ravaged by the disease. Spanish Flu. The accepted hypothesis is that the virus jumped from chimps to humans through bush hunting in central Africa. Here is a look at how pandemics have remade the world. (Library of Congress/Library of Congress). An earlier version of the graphic on this page said that there have been 50 million deaths from HIV/AIDS. 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