Rare Facts About The Most Fatal Pandemics and Epidemics In Human History - Part 1

An epidemic is a disease that can be spread from person to person and affects many individuals all at the same time in a location where the disease is not permanently prevalent.A pandemic is like an epidemic,but is much larger in scale.Pandemics can affect whole countries, continents,and sometimes even the entire world.Today, we're going to take a look at the most destructive epidemics and pandemics in human history.

1) The Fatal Plague Of Athens -

Striking at about 430 BCE during the Peloponnesian War,the Plague of Athens took out somewhere in the area of 100,000 people within a three year period.If that doesn't sound too impressive,keep in mind that's a full 25% of the entire Athenian population of the day.In order to help others later identify it,the Athenian general and historian Thucydides recorded his own eyewitness account of the plague and its symptoms.He described his sickness as presenting with a high fever,diarrhea, and a pustular rash.Equally disturbing is Thucydides' description of the social effects of the epidemic.He claimed that a widespread belief the plague could not be survived caused people to start behaving like criminals and mobs.He wrote, "The catastrophe was so overwhelming that men, not knowing what would happen next to them,became indifferent to every rule of religion or law."

2) The Galen Plague Or The Plague Of Antonine -

Also known as the Plague of Antonine,the Galen Plague ravaged the Roman Empire from 165 to 180 CE. While the nature of the plague isn't known today,it's believed that it might have been an outbreak of measles or smallpox.Whatever the case,historians think it was likely brought to Rome by troops returning from war.At its most deadly,the Antonine Plague was killing a full quarter of all who became infected by it.In the end, it is believed to have killed roughly 60 million people.And it wasn't just the poor and needy who suffered.The list of the dead is believed to have included Lucius Verus, a Roman emperor.

3) The Spanish Flu -

The pandemic that has come to be called the "Spanish flu"started in 1918 and would goon to infect an entire third of the world's population.Estimates on the death rate vary.But this particular sickness is believed to have affected roughly 500 million people and taken the lives of between 20 and 50 million people worldwide in just two years.Scientists would later identify the Spanish flu as a particularly brutal flu strain called "H1N1."The so-called Spanish flu also serves as a warning about what can be concluded from the name given to a pandemic.Scientists are unsure of wherein the Spanish flu originated.France, China, and Britain have all been suggested as a potential birthplace of the virus,and so has the United States,where the first known case was reported at a military base in Kansas on March 11, 1918.So why is it called the Spanish flu?Well, though it was one of the most ruthless pandemics in history, it struck during World War I.And most of its destruction wasn't reported on at the time because of censorship.Spain, however, was a neutral country during the war and its newspapers were the only ones to cover the pandemic.This led to the misnomer Spanish flu which has caused some people to falsely believe the disease originated in Spain.

4) 100 Year Third Pandemic -

The third pandemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague that originated in China and lasted from 1855 to the 1950s. Yes, this outbreak actually lasted almost 100 full years.The pandemic slowly spread beyond Asia to other continents and is believed to ultimately have taken the lives of as many as 15 million people.It wasn't until 1898 that Paul-Louis Simond discovered the cause of the disease was brown rats and rat fleas.This discovery, the first time a scientist had conclusively demonstrated what caused the plague,helped curb the spread of the sickness and eventually led to the creation of a vaccine.

5) The Swine Flu Pandemic -

The swine flu pandemic lasted from 2009 to 2010 and is believed to have killed over 200,000 people worldwide.Rooted in a unique influenza virus that had never previously been identified in animals or humans,it posed a huge problem for scientists.The closest related flus were the North American swine, H1N1,virus and the Eurasians wine, H1N1, virus.But investigations quickly showed that most of the people infected had never been exposed to pigs.This made it clear that the new virus was only affecting humans.At the time, the 2009 H1N1 was considered one of the most deadly modern pandemics and served as a warning about how incredibly vulnerable we humans still are to influenza strains.

6) The Outbreak Of Ebola -

The 2014 Ebola outbreak was the largest known breakout of Ebolain history and constituted the first actual Ebola epidemic.This outbreak, which would last roughly two years,would prove especially destructive to the people of West Africa.Finally, in March 2016, the World Health Organization determined that the situation was under control.Sadly, this was long after at least 28,616 cases had been confirmed and at least 11,310 deaths had occurred throughout Liberia,Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

7) The Pandemics OF HIV/AIDS -

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, more widely known by the acronym AIDS,has caused the deaths of millions of people.Scientists believe the disease originated in Africa during the 1920s and spread slowly from there.By 1981, a case had been reported in Los Angeles, California.The emergence of the disease had deep and lasting effects on American culture.On the upside, safe sex and the use of condoms became far more common.On the downside, in addition to the lives lost,the epidemic triggered waves of bigotry that were directed at the LGBT community.The virus form of AIDS, known as HIV,attacks the immune system.A person infected with HIV can contract AIDS when their body becomes too weak to fight off infections.However, not all of those who are infected with HIV will get AIDS.Many with the virus are able to live normal, healthy lives,thanks to anti-retro viral treatments which have become more widely available over the years.However, not everyone was so lucky.According to the World Health Organization,since the beginning of the epidemic,75 million people have become infected with HIV,and about 32 million have died from it.

So what do you think?Which of these historical plagues would scare you the most?Let us know in the comments below.And, while you're at it, checkout some of these other videos from our Weird History.