History of world epidemics. The most terrible epidemics (9 photos)
The most terrible epidemics and pandemics in human history
The Renaissance, with its balls and wonderful romantic relationships, paints us a utopian picture of a healthy, prosperous society, and the era of revolutions speaks of the genius of an advanced mind. But we forget that in those days communications were not developed like today, there was no sewage system as such, instead of the taps we are accustomed to there were only wells with stagnant water, and lice swarmed in the fluffy hairstyles of women, but this is only the most harmless phenomenon of bygone years. Due to the lack of refrigerators, people had to store food in a room where rats, carriers of deadly diseases, scurried about in hordes, and malaria-carrying mosquitoes swarmed near wells. Damp, poorly heated rooms became the cause of tuberculosis, and unsanitary conditions and dirt became a source of cholera.
Perhaps the word “plague” is in the everyday life of every nation, and everywhere it brings horror. It’s not for nothing that there is even such a proverb: to be afraid of the plague, that is, to be afraid of something in a panic. After all, it’s true that literally 200-400 years ago another epidemic of the disease claimed millions of lives due to the lack of the necessary antibiotic in the doctors’ arsenal. What can I say, to this day there is no antidote for many diseases - you can only delay, but not stop, the death of the human body. It would seem that progressive modern medicine should protect humanity from various epidemics, but viruses also adapt to new conditions, mutate, becoming a source of danger to life and health.
Black Death. The plague became the world's first global epidemic, which in 1348 killed almost half of the world's population. The disease arose in poor neighborhoods with a concentration of rats and entered the homes of the bourgeoisie. In just two years, the plague killed 50 million people, more than the world wars. It literally devastated entire cities; there was not a single family that was not affected by this infection. People fled from the plague, but there was no escape from it anywhere; instead, the black death captured more and more new states on its way. The disaster was pacified only 3 years later, but its individual, weaker manifestations shook European cities until the end of the 19th century. Poor doctors had to risk their lives to examine patients. In order to somehow protect themselves from infection, they wore uniforms made of coarse fabric, impregnated with wax, and put masks with long beaks on their faces, where aromatic substances with a fetid odor were placed, which helped to avoid infection.
Black Smallpox. Just think, at the beginning of the 16th century, America was inhabited by 100 million people, but terrible epidemics in just a few centuries reduced the number by 10-20 times, leaving 5-10 million survivors on the continent. Indigenous people lived quite happily until a countless stream of European migrants poured into the New World, bringing with them death in the form of black smallpox. Again black and again an epidemic. If the plague killed 50 million people, then smallpox killed 500 million. Only at the end of the 18th century was a vaccine found against the epidemic disease, but it could not save people from the outbreak in 1967, when over 2 million people died. The disease was so imminent that the Germans couched it in the saying “Love and smallpox escape only a few.” The royals also failed to avoid a sad fate. It is known that the English Queen Mary the Second, Louis the First of Spain and Peter the Second died of smallpox. Mozart, Stalin, Glinka and Gorky managed to survive smallpox. Catherine the Second was the first to ensure that her subjects were vaccinated against the disease.
Spaniard. This name was given to the flu that raged at the beginning of the 20th century. Before people had time to recover from the horrors of the First World War, a new attack struck them. The Spanish flu claimed 20 million lives in just a couple of months, and over the entire period of the epidemic, according to various sources, from 50 to 100 million people. During the course of the illness appearance the person was so modified that he looked like a guest from another world. It is this virus that is associated with the spread of rumors about vampires. The fact is that the rare lucky one who managed to overcome the disease was white as a sheet with black spots on his cheeks, cold limbs and red eyes. People mistook them for the walking dead, which is why they spread rumors about vampires. Perhaps the Spanish flu became the worst epidemic in human history.
Malaria. Probably the oldest pandemic, which at different periods covered various countries. Because of the blood-sucking vectors, it was also called swamp fever. Soldiers especially suffered during times of peace and civil wars and the builders of the Panama Canal. This virus is still raging in African countries, several million people die there from malaria every year. It turned out that Pharaoh Tutankhamun died from malaria - this was proven by DNA analysis, as well as medicines found in his tomb.
Tuberculosis. One of the oldest viruses found on earth. It turns out that even after thousands of years, tuberculosis was preserved in Egyptian mummies. In different historical eras, the epidemic destroyed millions of people. Just think - tuberculosis did not subside for 200 years, from 1600 to 1800. Despite modern antibiotics and vaccinations, doctors have not been able to completely protect people from the risk of disease.
Cholera. An entire work, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by the outstanding Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, is even dedicated to this epidemic. The Industrial Revolution led not only to progress, but also to an outbreak of cholera. Dirty Europe was suffocating in the stench, mired in disease, and traders transported the cholera virus to the East, Asia and Africa. Scientists believe that the virus was originally transmitted to humans from monkeys. And the emergence of manufactories, industrial waste and landfills have caused the emergence of E. coli in more late time. In addition, there was still no normal sewerage and water supply system. This scourge of dirty cities and countries still puts entire nations at risk of extinction.
AIDS. The sexual revolution of the 1980s led to the spread of one of the worst epidemics on earth - AIDS. Today this disease is called the plague of the 20th century. Promiscuity, drugs and prostitution contributed further more development pandemic. But this virus came from the poverty-stricken cities of Africa, generated by slums and unemployment. Millions of people become victims of the disease every year. To this day, doctors are unsuccessfully struggling to invent a cure or vaccine against AIDS. Due to the fact that a fifth of those infected hide or do not know about their own illness, it is impossible to establish the exact number of people infected with HIV. A striking example The lead singer of the group “Queen”, Freddie Mercury, who died in the prime of his life, completely alone, became a ruined talent due to his own stupidity.
Yellow fever. Africa has always been the most desirable continent in terms of slave labor and the most dangerous continent due to severe epidemics. Along with the slaves, yellow fever came to America from the “dark continent,” which wiped out entire settlements. Napoleon also tried to establish his own colony in North America, but the number of casualties among the soldiers was so great that the French emperor abandoned his idea in horror and sold Louisiana to the Americans. To this day, outbreaks of yellow fever epidemics occur in African countries.
Typhus. It was especially common among the military, which is why the epidemic was given the nickname war or camp fever. This disease decided the outcome of military events, or even the war itself, tilting the balance in one direction or another. Thus, during the siege of the Moorish Granada fortress by Spanish troops in 1489, the pandemic destroyed 17 thousand soldiers out of 25 thousand in just a month. Typhus, which raged for several centuries, did not allow the Moors to be expelled from Spain.
Polio. A terrible epidemic disease that children are especially susceptible to. In the Middle Ages, due to the lack of any normal sanitary and hygienic standards, millions of children died. In the 18th century, the virus matured significantly and began to infect adults. Doctors have never been able to find an effective cure for polio; the only solution to this day is vaccination.
It turns out interesting - humanity has so many problems, but instead of working together to try to invent means and treatments, biologists are working on creating biological weapons based on existing viruses. Has the bitter experience of past centuries, when entire cities died out, taught us nothing? Why do you need to turn medicine against yourself? Just think, just recently a terrible scandal broke out in America when a cleaning lady found a capsule with a biological weapons virus in a closet at a research institute, which they were going to throw away as unnecessary! But the evil contained in this capsule can destroy most world population! And an increasing number of countries are trying to increase their own power through the possession of biological weapons. So the recent outbreak of Ebola fever in some African countries is attributed to the hands of biological weapons developers. Although in fact this epidemic has previously affected not only people, but also primates. Today, the number of victims is already in the thousands, and humanity does not have a mass production of medicines and vaccines against pestilence.
But the history of biological weapons goes back to ancient times. Another ancient Egyptian commander used poisonous snakes for firing pots of them at enemies. In various wars, opponents threw the corpses of people killed by the plague into enemy camps to capture fortresses or, conversely, lift the siege. Terrorists sent letters infected with anthrax to residents of the United States. In 1979, an anthrax virus leak from a Sverdlovsk laboratory killed 64 people. It is interesting that today's progressive medicine, which works miracles, cannot resist modern epidemics, for example, the bird flu virus. And the more frequent Lately local wars for the redistribution of territories, global processes of labor migration, forced relocation, poverty, prostitution, alcoholism and drug addiction aggravate the situation.
While the percentage of deaths and the number of people infected has been decreasing over the years, the mortality rate from malaria, according to scientists, will double in the next twenty years due to a decrease in susceptibility to drugs. The second terrible disease we are talking about today is leprosy. In medieval France, lepers were condemned to death, a funeral service was served over the living, they were thrown with a couple of shovels of earth into the cemetery, and after such a funeral they were taken to a special house - a leper colony.
Malaria was first described around 2700 BC in the Chinese chronicle. But the first epidemic could have happened much earlier; from 8 to 15 thousand years ago, malaria could have caused a sharp decline in the number of people on Earth.
The patient's joints begin to ache, fever and chills, and convulsions appear. A person becomes a bait for mosquitoes - he begins to smell delicious to them. This is necessary for plasmodia to reach their beloved host again, since humans are only a means of distribution for them.
Children and people with HIV/AIDS are most at risk. The disease can be fatal for them.
Tanzania, child vaccination against malaria.
Malaria seems like some distant African disease. Malaria mosquitoes themselves live in almost all climatic zones. But to risk infection, you need a large number of these insects and their rapid reproduction. Previously, malaria was called “swamp fever” precisely because it is common in places where there is no low temperatures, there are swamps and there is a lot of rainfall. The risk of infection is highest in the equatorial and subequatorial zones. In Russia, such mosquitoes are found throughout the European part of the country.
Malaria in Russia and the USSR was widespread until the 1950s. In order to cope with this disease in the resort area, swamps in Sochi were drained and reservoirs were oiled: they were covered with a layer of oil to destroy mosquito larvae.
Largest quantity cases in the history of the USSR were recorded in 1934-1935 - then 9 million people became infected. In 1962, malaria was defeated in the USSR. Isolated cases of infection were possible after this. During the war in Afghanistan in 1986-1990, the USSR recorded an increase in the number of infected people - 1314 cases.
Malaria affects 97 countries. Although nearly half the world's population - 3.2 billion people - were at risk of contracting malaria in 2015, the majority of cases occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. This is where 88% of cases and 90% of deaths from malaria occur.
In 2015, they became infected with malaria 214 million man, and 438 thousand of them died. Bill Gates and British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in January 2016 to fight the disease. This money is planned to be spent on studying the disease and searching for it.
USSR stamp, 1962
American Indians hundreds of years ago used cinchona bark as an antipyretic. The Spanish naturalist Bernabe Cobo brought it to Europe in 1632. After the wife of the Viceroy of Peru was cured of malaria, wonderful properties the medicines were recognized throughout the country, then the bark was transported to Spain and Italy, and it began to be used throughout Europe. It took almost two hundred years for quinine to be isolated directly from the bark, which was used in powder form. It is still used to treat the disease.
For decades (or even hundreds) people have been trying to create a vaccine against malaria. Unfortunately, vaccines still do not have a 100% guarantee against the disease. In July 2015, the Moskirix vaccine was approved in Europe, which was tested on 15 thousand children. The effectiveness of this vaccine is up to 40% when administered four times from 0 to 20 months. The use of the vaccine will begin in 2017.
In October 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine Youyou Tu for discoveries in the field of combating malaria. The scientist extracted artemisinin, an extract from the herb Artemisia annua, the use of which significantly reduces mortality from malaria. Interestingly, she spied the recipe from the alchemist Ge Hong in the book “Prescriptions for Emergency Care” of 340 AD. He advised squeezing the juice of wormwood leaves in large quantities cold water. Yuyu Tuu achieved stable results precisely in the case of cold extraction.
Ge Hong. "Prescriptions for emergency care." 340
In 2015, scientists from the University of California were able to quickly introduce a malaria-blocking gene into a population of ordinary mosquitoes. In addition, after the gene is introduced, the eyes of mosquitoes begin to fluoresce, which increases the chance of their detection in the dark.
Entomologist Bart Noles almost every year, more and more “innovative”. He simply hates these insects, so he uses simulations of human odor to lure them into traps, trains dogs to recognize larvae to identify mosquito breeding sites, fills the blood with a medicine that kills insects when they bite, uses drones and a special fungus.
One of effective means To combat malaria, use a mosquito net impregnated with insecticides. Cheap and cheerful. Saves lives. Bart Noles is now testing houses that are themselves insect traps.
Leprosy
Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is a chronic granulomatosis: it affects the human skin, peripheral nervous system, eyes, respiratory tract, testicles, hands and feet. The outdated name for this disease is leprosy, it was mentioned in the Bible, was known in Ancient India and was common in Medieval Europe. It is so widespread that at the beginning of the 13th century in Europe there were 19 thousand leper colonies, special houses for lepers.
In 503, a decree was issued in France obliging all leprosy patients to live in leper colonies. A person with such a diagnosis was taken to church in a coffin, a funeral service was held, carried in the same coffin to the cemetery and lowered into the grave there. Then they threw down several shovels of earth, saying the words “You are not alive, you are dead to all of us.” Then the person was taken to the leper colony. A person could go out for a walk, but only by wearing a gray cloak with a hood and a bell around his neck to warn others about the approach of the “dead man.”
The appearance of the word “infirmary” is associated with the disease. Lepers were accepted into the knighthood of the Order of St. Lazarus. And they also took care of other patients. The order was located on the island of Lazaretto in Italy.
Until the 16th century, there was a leprosy epidemic in Europe, but the number of patients, for a reason unknown to science, decreased. Scientists in 2013 restored the DNA of bacteria from the year 1300, removing it from the teeth of people who died at that time in leper colonies. It turned out that in seven hundred years the bacterium has hardly changed. This suggests that people have simply developed relative immunity to the disease.
In 1873, the Norwegian physician Gerhard Hansen isolated the first bacterium that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae. Mycobacterium lepromatosis was isolated in 2008; these bacteria are common in Mexico and the Caribbean. Until recently, it was believed that only humans suffered from leprosy. But it turns out that armadillos and squirrels can transmit the disease to us. Moreover, squirrels themselves suffer from leprosy - they develop ulcers and growths on their heads and paws. Sick animals were discovered in the UK in 2016.
Lazaretto Island
The incubation period of the disease can last 5 years, and symptoms in humans may not appear until 20 years after infection. Doctors distinguish three types of disease: lepromatous, tuberculoid and borderline.
With lepromatous, bumps or nodes up to the size of a pea appear on the skin, which can merge into formations large sizes. Then ulcers open on these tubercles, filled with a large number of bacteria that cause the disease. These ulcers eventually affect not only the skin, but also reach the joints and bones of a person, after which the limbs can be amputated.
The tuberculoid type is characterized by damage only to the skin and peripheral nervous system. The perception of temperature and touch are impaired.
An unidentifiable type of leprosy can progress to any of the previous types. It can cause damage to the nervous system and deformation of the feet and hands.
Appearance patient with leprosy.
Leprosy is spread through droplets from the nose and mouth through frequent contact with untreated people. In other words, shouts of “unclean, unclean” and a bell around the neck of the sick were too powerful a means of prevention. Today it is known that leprosy is not transmitted by touching a person and does not always lead to death. Previously, it was incurable and actually led to inevitable disability. It's a matter of means and methods: bloodletting against leprosy is not the best best method treatment, as well as cleansing the stomach.
A person may not get sick at all even with too close contact with infected flesh. The Norwegian doctor Daniel Cornelius Danielsen experimented on himself: he injected the blood of a leprosy patient, rubbed the pus of patients into scratches on his skin, and injected pieces of a leprosy tubercle from the patient under his skin. But he never got sick. Now scientists have suggested that the disease also depends on the DNA of a particular person.
A breakthrough in treatment occurred in the 1940s with the development of the anti-leprosy drug dapsone. The drug has an antibacterial effect not only against Mycobacterium leprae, but also kills Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
The disease is closely related to social status. As of 2000, the World Health Organization named 91 countries with endemic leprosy. 70% of leprosy cases occur in India, Burma and Nepal. Those at risk are those people who have weakened immune systems, who drink contaminated water, eat little and live below the poverty line.
The number of patients has decreased over time, although this figure does not always decrease on a yearly basis. In 1999, 640 thousand new cases of infection were recorded worldwide, in 2000 - 738 thousand, and in 2001 - 775 thousand. But in 2015, several times fewer people fell ill - 211 thousand.
In Russia in 2007, there were 600 patients with leprosy, of whom only 35% were hospitalized, while the rest were on outpatient treatment and under observation. There were 16 leper colonies in the USSR, and four of them have survived in Russia. Patients can go to their relatives, but remain under observation. At the Tersky leper colony in the Stavropol Territory, some patients live about 70 years. And they no longer die from the disease itself, but from old age.
Communication between the patient and the doctor in the Terek leper colony. No masks or gloves
As the World Health Organization notes, over 20 years, more than 16 million patients with leprosy have been cured. This disease has been defeated almost all over the world. Fortunately, the causative bacteria has not changed much and is not resistant to drugs. The most important thing is to diagnose the disease as early as possible and begin its treatment. People with weak immune systems and poor living conditions are still at risk.
In the case of malaria, things are not so rosy. In some countries it poses a serious threat to human life. Cure is more likely if the disease is detected within 24 hours. If you do not get into this period of time, the outcome may be the death of the patient. The fight against the disease is complicated by the fact that there is still no vaccine with a high percentage of effectiveness. Therefore the most the best option- prevent malaria mosquitoes from biting people. For example, using a mosquito net or some other insect traps.
Malaria has been known to mankind since ancient times. In the ancient Chinese that have come down to us literary monuments and Egyptian papyri contain descriptions of a disease that, in its manifestations, resembles clinical malaria.
From the group of febrile diseases, it was identified as “swamp fever” by Hippocrates (430 - 377 BC), who first pointed out the connection of this disease with “damp climate” and “unhealthy water”. The Italian Aantzisi (1717), justifying the connection of fever with. poisonous fumes from wetlands, he used the name “malaria” (from the Italian malaaria - bad, spoiled air).
On the territory of Russia, malaria is mentioned in ancient Slavic manuscripts under names reflecting the characteristic clinical manifestations fever, - “icey”, “fire”, “turning yellow”, “plumping”, or such - “shaking”, “chill”, “pale woman”, “fever”.
In the history of malariology, a significant date is 1640, when Juan DelVego successfully used an infusion of cinchona bark to treat a patient with malaria, and only in 1816 F. I. Giese obtained crystalline quinine from the bark, and in 1820 R. J Pelletier, J. V. Caventon isolated the quinine alkaloid in pure form.
Brought to Europe by the monks of the Jesuit Order as “Jesuit powder,” quinine rightfully took a leading role in the system of therapeutic and preventive measures for this infection for many hundreds of years.
The causative agent of malaria was discovered in 1880. The honor of discovering the pathogen belongs to the French doctor Laveran, who, while working in Algeria, while examining the blood of a malaria patient, discovered mobile inclusions in red blood cells. He described their morphology in detail and suggested and then proved their animal nature. A year earlier, in 1879, the Russian pathologist V.I. Afanasyev described the pathological picture of sections of the brain of a patient who died from comatose malaria, in which he also found “pigment bodies”, but did not suggest the causative agents of the disease in them.
Later, other types of plasmodia were discovered: the causative agents of three-day and four-day malaria - P. vivax and P. malariae (Golgi C, 1885; Grassi G., Feletti R. 1890), tropical - P. falciparum (H. A. Sakharov, 1889; Marchiafava E. a., Celli A., 1890; Welch W. N, 1897) and P. ovale - the causative agent of ovale malaria (Stephens J. W. R, 1922).
In 1884, V. Ya. Danilevsky discovered the causative agents of avian malaria, thereby creating the necessary laboratory model for the study of Plasmodium.
The systematic position of pathogens was determined in 1887 by I.I. Mechnikov, who classified them as the phylum Protozoa, bringing them closer to coccidia.
In 1891, D. A. Romanovsky developed a method of polychrome staining of malarial plasmodia, laying the foundation for the laboratory diagnosis of malaria and identification of various species.
In 1897, the English military doctor Ronald Ross, who served in India, discovered the carrier of human malaria - Anopheles mosquitoes, and in 1898 - the carrier of avian malaria - Culex mosquitoes. These discoveries were deepened by Italian scientists who deciphered the development of plasmodium in Anopheles mosquitoes (Grassi, Bastianelli, Bignami, 1898).
In 1887, the Austrian physician Wagner von Jauregg proposed and in 1917 put into practice the infection of patients with neurosyphilis with malaria as a method of pyrogenic therapeutic effect.
Subsequently, three scientists - Laveran, Ross and Jauregg were awarded the Nobel Prize for their research in the field of malaria.
Major achievements in the study life cycle The causative agent of malaria and the pathogenesis of infection date back to the 20th century: exoerythrocytic schizogony was discovered (Short H. E., Garnham P. S. et al., 1948); a theory of polytypicity of P. vivax sporozoites was developed (Lysenko A. Ya. et al., 1976); chloroquine was synthesized (Andersag N. et al., 1945), a powerful insecticide, DDT, was discovered (1936 - 1939).
Infectious diseases have decimated humanity for many centuries. Epidemics destroyed entire nations and sometimes even took away more lives than war, since doctors did not have antibiotics and vaccines in their arsenal to fight diseases. Today medicine has stepped far forward and it seems that now a person has nothing to fear. However, most viruses can adapt to new conditions and again become a danger to our lives. Let's look at the worst epidemics in human history and hope that we don't have to face such terrible things.
1. Malaria
Malaria is considered one of the oldest diseases. According to some scientists, it was from this disease that the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun died. Malaria, caused by mosquito bites, affects up to 500 million people every year. Malaria is especially common in African countries, due to the presence of contaminated stagnant water and the breeding of mosquitoes in it.
After the bite of an infected mosquito, the virus enters the human blood and begins to actively multiply inside red blood cells, thereby causing their destruction.
2. Smallpox
Today, smallpox does not exist in nature and is the first disease completely defeated by humans.
The most terrible epidemic was the smallpox epidemic in America. The virus came to North and South America with European settlers. At the beginning of the 16th century, the smallpox virus caused a 10-20-fold reduction in the American population. Smallpox killed an estimated 500 million people. Scientists suggest that the smallpox virus first appeared in ancient Egypt. Evidence of this was obtained after studying the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses V, who died in 1157 BC. e., on which traces of smallpox were found.
3. Plague
The most famous pandemic in history is the Black Death. An outbreak of bubonic plague decimated the population of Europe from 1346 to 1353. The skin of those infected was covered with inflamed and swollen lymph nodes. The patients suffered from a terrible fever and were coughing up blood, which meant that the disease had attacked the lungs. The mortality rate from bubonic plague in the Middle Ages was about 90% of those infected. Historians estimate that the Black Death claimed the lives of 30 to 60% of Europe's population.
4. Plague of Justinian
The Black Death was not the only major plague epidemic in human history. In the 6th century, the so-called “Justinian Plague” raged; this epidemic is considered to be the first epidemic that was officially recorded in historical documents. The disease struck Byzantine Empire around 541 AD e. and is believed to have killed 100 million people. Outbreaks of the Justinian Plague continued for another 225 years before disappearing completely. It is assumed that the disease came to Byzantium from China or India along maritime trade routes.
5. Spanish flu
The Spanish flu epidemic, which killed a third of the world's population, began in 1918. According to some estimates, the disease killed between 20 and 40 million people in two years. It is assumed that the virus appeared in 1918 in China, from where it came to the United States, after which it was spread by American soldiers throughout Europe. By the summer of 1918, the flu had spread throughout Europe. Governments of countries categorically prohibited funds mass media cause panic, so the epidemic became known only when the disease reached Spain, which remained neutral. This is where the name “Spanish flu” comes from. By winter, the disease had spread to almost the entire world, without affecting Australia and Madagascar.
Attempts to create a vaccine were unsuccessful. The Spanish Flu epidemic lasted until 1919.
6. Antonine Plague
The Antonine Plague, also known as the Plague of Galen, plagued the Roman Empire from 165 to 180 AD. e. About 5 million people died during the epidemic, including several emperors and members of their families. The disease was described by Claudius Galen, who mentioned that those affected would develop a black rash on their bodies, suggesting that the epidemic was caused by smallpox and not the plague.
7. Typhus
There have been several typhus epidemics in history. The disease caused its greatest damage during the First World War, causing the death of more than 3 million people. The typhus vaccine was invented during World War II.
8. Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis was the cause of death huge amount people throughout history.
The worst epidemic of tuberculosis, known as the Great White Plague, began in Europe in the 1600s and raged for more than 200 years. The disease has killed about 1.5 million people.
In 1944, an antibiotic was developed to help effectively fight the disease. But despite the development of medicine and treatment, about 8 million people worldwide fall ill with tuberculosis every year, a quarter of whom die.
9. Swine flu
The swine flu pandemic, which lasted from 2009 to 2010, killed 203,000 people worldwide.
This viral strain consisted of unique influenza virus genes that had not previously been identified in either animals or humans. The closest to the swine flu virus were the North American swine H1N1 virus and the Eurasian swine H1N1 virus.
Swine flu in 2009-2010 is considered one of the worst modern pandemics, and shows how modern man vulnerable to some strains of influenza.
10. Cholera
One of the first modern pandemics is the cholera outbreak from 1827 to 1832. Mortality reached 70% of all infected, which amounted to more than 100,000 people. The disease entered Europe through British colonists returning from India.
For a long time it seemed that cholera had completely disappeared from the face of the earth, but an outbreak of the disease emerged in 1961 in Indonesia and spread to much of the world, killing more than 4,000 people.
11. Plague of Athens
The plague of Athens began around 430 BC. e. during the Peloponnesian War. The plague killed 100,000 people in three years; it should be noted that at that time this number represented about 25% of the entire population of Ancient Athens.
Thucydides gave a detailed description of this plague to help others identify it later. According to him, the epidemic manifested itself in a rash on the body, high temperature and diarrhea.
Some scientists believe that the cause of the epidemic in Ancient Athens was smallpox or typhus.
12. Moscow plague
In 1770, an outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in Moscow, which killed between 50,000 and 100,000 people, that is, a third of the city's population. After the epidemic in Moscow, the bubonic plague disappeared from Europe.
13. Ebola virus
The first Ebola diseases were identified in Guinea in February 2014, where the epidemic began, which lasted until December 2015 and spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, the United States, Spain and Mali. According to official data, 28,616 people fell ill with Ebola and 11,310 people died.
The disease is highly contagious and can cause kidney and liver dysfunction. Ebola fever requires surgical treatment. A vaccine against the disease was discovered in the United States, but because it is extremely expensive, it is not available worldwide.
14. HIV and AIDS
AIDS causes the death of more than 25 million people. Scientists believe the disease originated in Africa in the 1920s. HIV is a viral form of the disease and attacks the human immune system. Not everyone infected with HIV develops AIDS. Many people with the virus can lead normal lives by taking antiretroviral drugs.
In 2005, AIDS killed 3.1 million people. The average death rate per day was about 8,500.
For the release of The Division, we tell you how humanity fought three terrible epidemics
Deserted snow-covered streets, frozen cars and closed shops. There is no food or medicine, rescue services and police are not working, the city is divided among gangs. This is exactly how New York appears before us in the online game Tom Clancy's The Division.
Nothing extraordinary happened to the city - “just” an outbreak of a smallpox epidemic that wiped out most of the population of the entire city. In the history of mankind, this has happened many times - and today we will talk about the most terrible epidemics that claimed tens and hundreds of millions of lives.
Spanish guest. Influenza epidemic in 1918-1919
Probably each of us is familiar with the flu - this disease comes to visit every winter, migrating from the southern hemisphere to the northern. And every visit ends in an epidemic: the flu virus mutates so quickly that after a year the human immune system has to relearn how to cope with the disease.
An “ordinary” influenza epidemic kills several hundred thousand people, and its victims usually become previously weakened people - children and the elderly, pregnant women, and those who already suffer from serious illnesses. But in 1918, humanity was faced with a flu that killed young and completely healthy people- and he killed by the millions, mowing down entire small towns.
Despite its name, the Spanish Flu probably originated in China in early 1918, from where it spread to the United States. On March 11, at the base at Fort Riley, the virus infected more than 500 soldiers preparing to take part in the First World War. Everything quickly became easier for them and the unit set off on ships to Europe.
This is how the Spanish flu hit almost perfect place. Millions of soldiers were in trenches where basic hygiene rules were not observed and medical care was unavailable. There were also not enough doctors and medicines in the rear - all the best went to the front. By sea, railway and highways Convoys rushed by, which, along with military cargo, also delivered the carrier of the disease.
By the end of April, the flu swept through France, from where it spread throughout Europe in just over two months. Because of the war, governments forbade newspapers to stir up panic, so people began to talk about the epidemic only when the disease reached neutral Spain - hence the name. By the end of summer the virus had reached North Africa and India, and then fell silent.
At the end of August, the “Spanish flu” moved back - it struck part of Africa, returned to Europe, crossed by ship to the United States, and by winter it covered almost the entire world, except for Madagascar, Australia and New Caledonia. And this time the virus began to kill. The speed of development of the disease frightened even doctors who had seen a lot: in a matter of hours the temperature rose to forty degrees, pain began in the head and muscles, and then the disease reached the lungs, causing severe pneumonia. Already on the second or third day, some died from cardiac arrest, which could not support the upset body. Others held out for up to two weeks, dying due to pneumonia.
Eyewitnesses of the Spanish Flu describe a picture that would be the envy of many disaster movie scripts. In India, small towns turned into ghosts where the entire population died. In Great Britain, at the height of the war, many factories stopped working, and in Denmark and Sweden, the telegraph and telephone stopped working for some time - simply because there was no one to work. Worked with glitches railways- drivers of some trains died on the way.
Attempts to create a vaccine were unsuccessful, and there were no funds to support the patient, weakening the symptoms of the infection and allowing the body to cope with the virus on its own. Society tried to protect itself with organizational measures: all public events were cancelled, stores began selling “through a window” through which the client put money and received the goods, and in small American towns a random passerby could be shot if a patrol of conscious citizens thought he looked like on the patient.
The Spanish flu epidemic lasted until the end of 1919, and its third wave did not affect only the Brazilian island of Marajo at the mouth of the Amazon River. The virus infected more than a quarter of the planet's population, and the mortality rate, according to various estimates, ranged from 50 to 100 million - that is, 2.5-5% of the total population of the planet at that time.
Defeated monster. Smallpox
Smallpox, which caused the events of The Division, is no longer found in nature - it is the first disease to be completely eradicated by humans. For the first time, smallpox epidemics were described in detail in the Middle East - in the 4th century, the disease swept across China, then appeared in Korea, and in 737 an epidemic shook Japan, where, according to some sources, up to a third of the population died. At the same time, the virus began to penetrate Europe.
Smallpox disfigures its carrier in a matter of days, covering the body with many ulcers. In this case, you can become infected not only by airborne droplets, but also through clothing, bedding, and dishes onto which the pathogen came from ulcers. IN medieval Europe smallpox at some point became an almost constant companion of man. Some doctors argued that everyone should have it, and the police pointed out the absence of traces of smallpox as a special sign when searching for a suspect. Every eighth person infected died from smallpox, and among children the mortality rate reached 30%. In “quiet” years, the disease claimed from 800 thousand to one and a half million lives, without sparing those who recovered - in addition to scars from ulcers that remained for life, the infection often led to blindness.
Even more terrible was the smallpox epidemic in America, where the virus arrived with the colonialists. If the immunity of Europeans was at least somehow familiar with the disease, then for the Indians the new virus turned out to be a deadly surprise - in some tribes up to 80-90% of those infected died from smallpox. In fact, the Europeans used a kind of biological weapon - smallpox, as well as other diseases such as malaria, typhus and measles, went ahead of the conquerors, destroying entire villages and weakening the Indians. In the advanced Incan empire, smallpox killed at least 200,000 of its population of six million, weakening the empire so much that the Spanish were able to conquer it with a small force.
The first attempts to treat smallpox were made in India and China back in the 8th-10th centuries - doctors looked for a patient who had a mild form of smallpox, and then infected healthy people with the “weakened” virus. In Europe, this method was tried at the beginning of the 18th century, but the results were controversial - there remained a small percentage of people whom the vaccine, on the contrary, infected and even killed. They became carriers of the disease, so in some cases the treatment itself led to outbreaks of the epidemic.
The real vaccine was discovered at the end of the same century, when the English doctor Edward Jenner began inoculating patients with the cowpox vaccine. This virus was harmless to humans, but caused immunity from “real” smallpox. The medicine turned out to be relatively cheap to produce and use, becoming popular in Europe. But the virus was not going to give up without a fight. The vaccine often turned out to be of poor quality, plus they did not immediately learn how to re-vaccinate after several decades. Smallpox struck its last major blow in 1871–1873, when mortality in Europe rose to the same level as a century earlier.
By the second half of the 20th century, smallpox was driven out of developed countries. People continued to get sick only in Asia, Africa and South America, from where the virus regularly tried to break back. For the final victory, in 1967, the World Health Organization launched an unprecedented program worth $1.2 billion (in 2010 prices), the goal of which was to vaccinate at least 80% of the population of problem countries - this is the level that was considered sufficient to stop the spread of the virus.
The program dragged on for almost ten years, but ended in success - the last smallpox patient was registered in 1977 in Somalia. To date, smallpox does not exist in nature - samples of the virus are stored in only two laboratories in the USA and Russia.
Black killer. Plague epidemic of 1346-1353
Since 1312, the Little Ice Age began on Earth - the temperature dropped sharply, and rains and frosts destroyed crop after crop, causing a terrible famine in Europe. Well, in 1346 another misfortune came - a terrible disease. The skin of those who caught the infection began to become covered with “buboes” - lymph nodes that were inflamed and swollen to enormous sizes. The patients suffered from a terrible fever, and many were coughing up blood - this meant that the disease had reached the lungs. The chances of recovery were minimal - according to modern estimates, the mortality rate was more than 90%.
Later, historians would call this disease the “Black Death” - probably because of the number of deaths (the word “black” was replaced by “many people” in translation). In fact, we are talking about a plague known to many.
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