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Pandemic history
History of Pandemic
Pan·dem·ic /panˈdemik/ (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.
As humans have spread across the world, so have infectious diseases. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has.
Today’s visualization outlines some of history’s most deadly pandemics, from the Antonine Plague to the current COVID-19 event.
A Timeline of Historical Pandemics
Disease and illnesses have plagued humanity since the earliest days, our mortal flaw. However, it was not until the marked shift to agrarian communities that the scale and spread of these diseases increased dramatically.
Widespread trade created new opportunities for human and animal interactions that sped up such epidemics. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, smallpox, and others first appeared during these early years.
The more civilized humans became – with larger cities, more exotic trade routes, and increased contact with different populations of people, animals, and ecosystems – the more likely pandemics would occur.
Source: the Visual Cap
Name | Time period | Type / Pre-human host | 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 | 1665 | Yersinia pestis bacteria / Rats, fleas | 100,000 |
Italian plague | 1629-1631 | Yersinia pestis bacteria / Rats, fleas | 1M |
Cholera Pandemics 1-6 | 1817-1923 | V. cholerae bacteria | 1M+ |
Third Plague | 1885 | Yersinia pestis bacteria / Rats, fleas | 12M (China and India) |
Yellow Fever | Late 1800s | Virus / Mosquitoes | 100,000-150,000 (U.S.) |
Russian Flu | 1889-1890 | Believed to be H2N2 (avian origin) | 1M |
Spanish Flu | 1918-1919 | H1N1 virus / Pigs | 40-50M |
Asian Flu | 1957-1958 | H2N2 virus | 1.1M |
Hong Kong Flu | 1968-1970 | H3N2 virus | 1M |
HIV/AIDS | 1981-present | Virus / Chimpanzees | 25-35M |
Swine Flu | 2009-2010 | H1N1 virus / Pigs | 200,000 |
SARS | 2002-2003 | Coronavirus / Bats, Civets | 770 |
Ebola | 2014-2016 | Ebolavirus / Wild animals | 11,000 |
MERS | 2015-Present | Coronavirus / Bats, camels | 850 |
COVID-19 | 2019-Present | Coronavirus – Unknown (possibly pangolins) | 14,600 (as of Mar 24, 2020) |
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