10 Deadly Epidemics Of The History

Humans have been battling pandemics since before our species had even evolved into its modern form. For some viral diseases, vaccines and antiviral drugs have allowed us to keep infections from spreading widely, and have helped sick people recover.We've been able to eradicate some diseases but some left us clueless killing millions of people.

But we're a long way from winning the fight against them.Here are some of the greatest epidemics that took millions of life. Except these epidemics there have been various virus outbreaks like Ebola,Hantavirus,Rotavirus,Marburg Virus along with the most recent novel covid-19 but here are the epidemics which were more severe and which shook the very foundation of the human existence.

Here are the 10 worst killers, based on the likelihood that a person will die if they are infected with one of them, the sheer numbers of people they have killed.

Antonine Plague (165 AD)

Death Toll-  5 million
Cause- Not known Scholars suspect it to be smallpox or measles
Cure- Not known
Symptoms- fever, diarrhoea, pharyngitis, skin eruption

Also known as the Plague of Galen, the Antonine Plague was an ancient pandemic that affected Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, and Italy and is thought to have been either Smallpox or Measles, though the true cause is still unknown. This unknown disease was brought back to Rome by soldiers returning from Mesopotamia around 165AD, unknowingly they had spread a disease which would end up killing over 5 million people and decimating the Roman army.

The Plague of Justinian

Death Toll- 25 to100 million
Cause- Yersinia pestis
Cure- Not known
Symptoms- fever, headache, chills, swollen lymph nodes, abdominal pain, gangrene

The Plague of Justinian occured in 541-543 AD .The pandemic was followed by frequent outbreaks over the next two hundred years, eventually killing over 25 million people across the European Mediterranean.
This plague is caused by a bacterium called yersinia pestis that often infects small rodents like rats, mice, and squirrels. It is usually transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected flea.
This deadly pandemic affected the Eastern Roman Empire, specifically Constantinople and port cities along the Mediterranean sea. This pandemic was so severe that it killed almost 13% of the world's population. The plague returned in waves, but was never as severe as this one. It was named after the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian, who ruled at the time. 

THE BLACK DEATH

Death Toll-  50 to 100 million
Cause- Yersinia pestis
Cure- Antibiotics
Symptoms- abdomen pain, cough, fever, chills, fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea, headache, shortness of breath

Also called The Great Plague or Great Pestilence or Bubonic Plague, it originated in China in 1334 and spread all along trade routes to Constantinople and Europe, where it claimed nearly 60% of the European population and completely wiped out many towns. Smaller epidemics continued through the centuries, with the last major one in England in 1665.

Cocolitzli epidemic (1576)

Death Toll- 5 to 15 million
Cause- Not known but suggested to be caused by Salmonella enterica
Cure- Not know
Symptoms- high fever, severe headache, vertigo, black tongue , dark urine, jaundice, dysentery, abdominal and chest pain, neurological disorder

Also called Aztecs ,this "disease" caused millions of deaths in the territory of New Spain, which is the present-day Mexico. Cocolitzli refers to a collection of pests. The symptoms were very much the same as Ebola, but included a dark tongue, jaundice and neck nodules.

Smallpox

Death Toll- 300 to 500 million
Cause- Variola Virus
Cure- There's no cure for smalllpox.However, a vaccine was used to prevent it from developing if given during a period of upto 4 days after the infection but its risk is too high to provide routine vaccination for people at low exposure to the virus.
Symptoms- muscle pain, skin rashes, fever, malaise, headache, vomiting

Smallpox is a very old disease, dating back to Egyptian times. Before the disease was eradicated through inoculation, epidemics could kill 30 percent of those infected.In Europe, the disease is estimated to have killed 60 million people in the 18th century alone.
Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980 following a global immunization campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO). The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977. Since then, the only known cases were caused by a laboratory accident in 1978 in Birmingham, England, which killed one person and caused a small outbreak.

Spanish Influenza

Death Toll- 50 to 100 million
Cause- H1N1 type influenza
Cure- Not known
Symptoms- fever, nausea, aches, diarrhoea, pneumonia attack

Also known as the Spanish flu, estimated 50 to 100 million people died across the world from it between 1918 and 1919,far more than the 16 million people killed in the World War I. 
The name Spanish Influenza came about because the Spanish media published uncensored reports of the pandemic, compared to other European governments which controlled the news for fear of undermining public morale.
It infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide,about one-third of the world's population at that time.

The Asian Flu Pandemic(1956)

Death Toll- 2 million
Cause- influenza subtype H2N2 virus
Cure- Antiviral Drugs like oseltamivir(Tamiflu) and zanamivir(Relenza)
Symptoms- fever, aches, chills, weakness, loss of appetite

The Asian Flu Pandemic was an outbreak of avian influenza that  originated in China in 1956 and spread worldwide. The estimated death rate was one to two million.

The Asian Flu Pandemic(1968)

Death Toll- 2 to 4million
Cause- influenza subtype H3N2 virus
Cure- Antiviral Drugs
Symptoms- chills, fever, muscle pain, weakness, respiratory problems

Sometimes referred to as “the Hong Kong Flu,” the 1968 flu pandemic was caused by the H3N2 strain of the Influenza, A virus, a genetic offshoot of the H2N2 subtype. It spread through Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam, Philippines, India, Australia, Europe, and the United States. While the 1968 pandemic had a comparatively low mortality rate (.5%) it still resulted in the deaths of more than a million people, including 500,000 residents of Hong Kong, approximately 15% of its population at that time.

Tuberculosis

Death Toll- 50 to 100 million
Cause- Mycobacterium tuberclosis
Cure- Antibiotics like Isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, pyrazinamide
Symptoms- cough, weight loss, fever, chest pain, sweating, shortness of breath

 Tuberculosis, also known as consumption or TB, has also been around for a very long time,with evidence of the disease found in some Egyptian mummies from 3,000-2,400 BC.
TB killed more people than any other disease during the 19th and early 20th centuries, according to the Harvard University Library.
By the late 19th century, between 70 and 90 percent of the urban populations of Europe and North America were infected with the TB bacillus, and about 80 percent of those individuals who developed active tuberculosis died of it.
Today, TB is rare in wealthier countries, but second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide, according to the WHO. In 2018, 10 million people fell ill with TB and 1.5 million died from it.

Malaria

Death Toll- 50 to 100 million
Cause- plasmodium parasite
Cure- Antiparasitic and Antibiotics
Symptoms- chills, fatigue, pain in abdomen and muscles, headache, vomiting, night sweat,shivering

Also called plasmodium infection, malaria is a major problem in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where around 90 percent of all deaths from the disease occur. WHO estimates that in 2018, there were around 228 million malaria cases across the world, resulting in 4,05,000 deaths.
The disease is caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes.

HIV/AIDS

Death Toll- above 35 million
Cause- Human immuno deficiency virus
Cure- No cure but strict adherence to antiretroviral regimens(ARVs) can slow the diseases progress as well as prevent secondary infections and complications.
Symptoms- abdomen pain, sores in groin, nausea, diarrhoea, fatigue, loss of appetite, ulcers in mouth

First identified in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976, HIV/AIDS has truly proven itself as a global pandemic, killing more than 36 million people since 1981. Currently there are between 31 and 35 million people living with HIV (the virus that causes acquired immuno deficiency syndrome(AIDS)), the vast majority of those are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 5% of the population is infected, roughly 21 million people. As awareness has grown, new treatments have been developed that make HIV far more manageable.