Top 10 Worst Pandemics In History

Everyone agrees that a pandemic is a widespread outbreak of disease that exceeds what might typically be anticipated in a particular geographic area. Scientists and medical researchers have disagreed over the precise definition of a pandemic for years, is it a pandemic or an epidemic? but there is one point on which they are all in agreement.

Some of the most heinous killers in recorded human history include cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and influenza. And the spread of these diseases over international borders is correctly referred to as a pandemic, particularly in the case of smallpox, which has killed between 300 million and 500 million people throughout history throughout its 12,000-year lifes.

Worst Pandemic In History

• COVID-19 (THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS)
• HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC (AT ITS PEAK, 2005-2012)
• FLU PANDEMIC (1968)
• ASIAN FLU (1956-1958)
• FLU PANDEMIC (1918)
• SIXTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC (1910-1911)
• FLU PANDEMIC (1889-1890)
• THIRD CHOLERA PANDEMIC (1852–1860)
• THE BLACK DEATH (1346-1353)
• PLAGUE OF JUSTINIAN (541-542)
• ANTONINE PLAGUE (165 AD)

1. COVID-19 (THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS)

A new (novel) coronavirus started showing up in people in December 2019 in the Wuhan region of China. The sickness has been given the moniker Covid-19, which is short for coronavirus disease of 2019. Because it is so new, this virus spreads among individuals extraordinarily quickly. No one on earth is immune to Covid-19 because no one contracted it before 2019. Although the virus was once thought to be an epidemic in China, it quickly spread to every country. By the end of March, the WHO had designated Covid-19 a pandemic, infecting more than 500,000 individuals worldwide and causing close to 30,000 fatalities. The number of infections was still skyrocketing in the US and other countries.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, people all around the world are more knowledgeable about the best procedures to follow during a pandemic, including thorough hand-washing and social seclusion. Countries all throughout the world enacted obligatory stay-at-home policies, closing public buildings including schools and companies. A large number of independent researchers and dozens of businesses started developing diagnostics, medications, and vaccines. The world's top priority changed to trying to save the human species from the pandemic.

At the time of writing, it is hard to forecast how the Covid-19 epidemic will turn out. But in order to choose the optimal course, we can learn from historical pandemics. The Spanish flu, the AIDS pandemic, and other health issues are teaching us.

2. HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC (AT ITS PEAK, 2005-2012)

READ ALSO » Top 8 Worst States For Allergies

Since its discovery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has effectively established itself as a worldwide epidemic, killing more than 36 million people. Between 31 and 35 million people are currently living with HIV, the majority of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the infection affects 5% of the population, or about 21 million people. As public knowledge has increased, new medications have been created that make HIV much easier to control, and many people who are infected go on to lead fulfilling lives. The number of people worldwide who died from HIV/AIDS decreased from 2.2 million in 2005 to 1.6 million in 2012.

3. FLU PANDEMIC (1968)

The 1968 flu pandemic, which was classified as a category 2 flu pandemic and frequently referred to as the Hong Kong Flu, was brought on by the H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, a genetic offshoot of the H2N2 subtype. It took just 17 days after the first case being recorded on July 13, 1968 in Hong Kong for outbreaks to be reported in Singapore and Vietnam, and within three months the virus had spread to The Philippines, India, Australia, Europe, and the United States. Despite the 1968 pandemic's relatively low mortality rate (0.5%), more than a million people died as a result of it, including 500,000 Hong Kong residents, or around 15% of the city's population at the time.

4. ASIAN FLU (1956-1958)

The Asian Flu was an influenza A pandemic outbreak of the H2N2 subtype that started in China in 1956 and continued until 1958. Asian Flu made its way from the Chinese province of Guizhou to Singapore, Hong Kong, and the US during its two-year rampage. Various sources have provided estimates for the number of people who died as a result of the Asian Flu, but the World Health Organization puts the total at around 2 million, with 69,800 of those deaths occurring in the US alone.

5. FLU PANDEMIC (1918)

An unsettlingly lethal influenza outbreak that ravaged the world between 1918 and 1920 killed 20–50 million people and infected over a third of the world's population. The mortality rate of the 500 million persons who contracted the 1918 pandemic was estimated to be 10% to 20%, with up to 25 million deaths occurring in the first 25 weeks alone. The victims of the 1918 flu pandemic were what set it apart from previous influenza outbreaks; in the past, influenza had only ever killed children, the elderly, and patients who were already sick, but this time it started attacking strong, healthy young adults, leaving children and people with weakened immune systems alive.

6. SIXTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC (1910-1911)

The Sixth Cholera Pandemic, like its five predecessors, began in India, where it claimed over 800,000 lives before moving to the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Russia. The latest cholera outbreak in the United States occurred in 1910–1911, during the sixth cholera pandemic. Only 11 deaths happened in the U.S. as a result of swift efforts by American health authorities to isolate the afflicted after learning from the past. Cholera occurrences had drastically decreased by 1923, yet they were still a regular occurrence in India.

7. FLU PANDEMIC (1889-1890)

It was formerly believed that the Asiatic Flu or Russian Flu, as it was also known, was an outbreak of the influenza A virus subtype H2N2, but more recent research has revealed that this was not the case. The first occurrences were noted in May 1889 in three distinct and remote locations: Greenland, Athabasca, and Bukhara in Central Asia (Turkestan). The flu spread quickly during the 19th century due to the rapid urban population development, which only served to accelerate the pandemic's global spread. Although much was learned from it, it was the first actual pandemic in the period of bacteriology. In the end, nearly a million people died as a result of the 1889–1890 flu pandemic.

8. THIRD CHOLERA PANDEMIC (1852–1860)

The third significant epidemic of cholera in the 19th century occurred from 1852 to 1860 and is generally regarded as the deadliest of the seven cholera pandemics. Similar to the first and second pandemics, the third pandemic of cholera started in India and spread from the Ganges River Delta before wreaking havoc on Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa, killing over a million people. While conducting research in a depressed section of London, British doctor John Snow kept track of cholera cases and eventually discovered polluted water to be the disease's primary route of transmission. The pandemic's worst year, in which 23,000 people died in Great Britain, unfortunately occurred the same year as his discovery (1854).

9. THE BLACK DEATH (1346-1353)

READ ALSO » Top 10 Deadliest Epidemics Recorded In Human History

Between 1346 and 1353, Europe, Africa, and Asia were devastated by a plague outbreak that killed between 75 and 200 million people. The Plague, which is believed to have originated in Asia, most likely spread throughout continents thanks to the fleas that lived on the rats that were so common in trade ships. Ports were important metropolitan hubs at the time, making them ideal places for rats and fleas to proliferate. As a result, the sneaky bacterium spread, wreaking havoc on three continents.

10. PLAGUE OF JUSTINIAN (541-542)

The Plague of Justinian was an outbreak of the bubonic plague that struck the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean port cities, killing up to 25 million people in its year-long reign of terror and said to have destroyed perhaps half the population of Europe. The Plague of Justinian, widely regarded as the first instance of the bubonic plague to be documented, left its mark on the world, eradicating up to 25% of the population of the Eastern Mediterranean and wreaking havoc in Constantinople, where at its height it was claiming an estimated 5,000 lives per day and eventually killed 40% of the city's inhabitants.

11. ANTONINE PLAGUE (165 AD)

The Antonine Plague, also known as the Plague of Galen, was a historic pandemic that struck Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. Though the exact cause is still unknown, it is believed to have been either Smallpox or Measles. Around 165 AD, troops returning from Mesopotamia carried an unidentified disease to Rome; unknowingly, they spread a plague that would ultimately kill over 5 million people and decimate the Roman army.