As human civilizations expand, infectious diseases also emerge. Large groups of people living close together along with animals that were poorly maintained or malnourished provided ideal breeding grounds for infectious disease transmission; international trade routes carried these new infections further afield and resulted in their rapid spread across multiple regions creating the first pandemics worldwide.
Here is how five of the world’s worst pandemics finally ended.
1. Justinian’s Plague – no one left alive
Yersinia pestis, commonly referred to as pasteurella pestis, was the organism responsible for spreading plague in human populations and can be observed using an X 1000 light microscope.
Three of the deadliest pandemics ever experienced have been caused by one bacteria known as Yersinia pestis – commonly referred to as plague.
Justinian’s Plague arrived in Constantinople, capital of Byzantine Empire, in 541 CE after crossing from Egypt by means of grain offerings made as tribute to Justinian by newly conquered states such as Nubia – plague-infected fleas hitching rides on black rats that nibbled the grain strewn about and transported by ship across Mediterranean Sea to Constantinople and infesting black rats nibbling it all the way there!
The plague began its devastating spread from Constantinople, spreading swiftly throughout Europe, Asia, North Africa and Arabia before killing between 30-50 million people globally – more than half the global population at that point.
“People had no real concept of how they should combat it other than trying to avoid those sick with symptoms,” noted Thomas Mockaitis, history professor from DePaul University. As for how and when pandemics end, Mockaitis suggests the best assumption may be that most survivors develop immunity over time and eventually the pandemic passes over.
2. Black Plague Quarantine Systems Development – History
Couple suffering the effects of black plague in Europe during Middle Ages; from Swiss manuscript of Toggenburg Bible 1411.
Plague never really left us and when it reappeared 800 years later it killed with reckless abandon – killing 200 million in four years across Europe alone! In 1347 when Europe first fell under its grips the black plague claimed 200 million lives!
As for how to stop it, according to Mockaitis, people didn’t fully comprehend its spread – although proximity was likely involved – which explains why avant-garde officials from Venetian-controlled port city Ragusa have decided to house recently arrived sailors in isolation until they are proven not to be sick.
At first, sailors detained on ships for 30 days – known in Venetian law as trentinos – were imprisoned voluntarily until forced confinement increased to 40 days, giving rise to what has come to be known today as quarantino and the practice of it elsewhere in Western culture.
“The action taken definitely had an effect,” remarks Mockaitis.
3. London and the Great Plague – Isolating Sick Individuals
Scenes in London during the Great Plague of 1665.
London was never really immune from plague after the Black Death; outbreaks occurred approximately every 20 years from 1348-1665–affecting 40 households at each outbreak, killing 20% of men, women, and children who reside in Britain’s capital city each time around.
England introduced laws in the early 1500s that sought to identify and segregate those suffering from plague, by marking houses affected with one by attaching a hay bale with pole to each house affected. Family members infected should wear white poles when going outside in public and cats and dogs were believed to be carriers, leading to mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands.
The Great Plague of 1665 was one of the deadliest epidemics ever to hit London and spread through several centuries, killing 100,000 Londoners within seven months. All public entertainment was banned to control spread and victims forced into isolation to prevent it spreading further; red crosses painted onto their doors with pleas for forgiveness: “Lord have mercy on us.”
As cruel and unnecessary as it was to quarantine sick individuals in their own homes and bury the dead mass graves was likely the only effective solution to ending this last great plague epidemic.
4. Smallpox is an old European disease which now plagues much of the New World.
Dr. Edward Jenner gave James Phipps, his first smallpox vaccine in 1796.
Smallpox has long been an endemic problem in Europe, Asia and Arabia – often killing three out of ten those infected and leaving those who survive with permanent scarring – yet its death toll paled compared with that seen when European explorers introduced smallpox virus into indigenous populations of New World in 15th Century.
Indigenous populations from Mexico and the US had no natural immunity against smallpox; consequently, millions fell victims to this devastating virus.
“Human history has seen no death of equal magnitude as what occurred in the Americas; between 90-95% of indigenous populations vanished over one hundred years”, states Mockaitis. Mexico went from 11 million people before colonization down to one million today.
Centurys later, smallpox became the first viral epidemic ever effectively prevented with vaccination. At the end of the 18th century, British physician Edward Jenner discovered that dairy farmers who had been exposed to cowpox appeared immune from smallpox infection; Jenner then famously vaccinated and exposed his gardener’s 9-year-old son without experiencing adverse side effects from either exposure or vaccination.
“[T]he end goal must be the complete eradication of smallpox as one of humanity’s worst diseases”, wrote Jenner in 1801.
And indeed he was right; although it took almost 200 more years, in 1980 the World Health Organization officially confirmed that smallpox had been completely eradicated from Earth’s surface.
5. Cholera research wins out
Caricature of the Thames River with its offshoot diseases of cholera, scrofula and diphtheria from 1858.
Beginning to middle 19th-century England was devastated by cholera epidemic, killing thousands. While conventional theory claimed the disease spread via “miasma”, but an English doctor named John Snow suspected otherwise: they suspected its source lay within London’s drinking water itself! John Snow suspected this mysterious pathogen had its first victims falling victim a mere few days after its first symptoms appeared and thus was lurking there too!
Snow served as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, researching hospital records and morgue reports to pinpoint fatal epidemics. He created a map depicting all cholera deaths over 10 days; within this timeline 500 fatal infections had taken place nearby in Broad Street; an area well-known for drinking water resources.
“Once I became aware of the severity and scope of this cholera outbreak (sic), my first suspicions were contamination of water from Broad Street pumps,” according to Snow.
Snow made great efforts to convince local authorities to remove the pump handle from Broad Street well, rendering it inaccessible, which led to infections clearing away as though by magic. Snow’s work didn’t cure cholera instantly but ultimately led to global efforts that improved urban sanitation and protected drinking water sources from contamination.
Though cholera has largely been eliminated in developed nations, it remains a serious threat in third world countries without access to adequate wastewater treatment or clean drinking water supplies.
Since ancient times, leprosy had long been present. It reached epidemic proportions during Europe’s Middle Ages as its presence spread like wildfire. Leprosy was considered by some a divine punishment that ran through families.
The black plague stands as a terrifying example of how quickly disease spreads around the globe. As part of bubonic plague’s second pandemic to strike Earth, this pandemic caused widespread mortality; known as great mortality due to its devastation at first and eventually known as black plague by 17th-century end.
Bubonic plague was another devastating impact of London life in 1666; it killed 20% of Londoners at its height before tapering off around the time of another devastating event, the Great London Fire.
Discover: When London faced both pandemic and fire. Learn about it now.
Over a period of 150 years, seven separate cholera pandemics occurred; starting first with Russian civilians dying and spreading via water or food-borne transmission before eventually spreading across to Indian populations and killing millions more people. The bacteria spread further by British soldiers taking it with them from Russia where one million died to India where millions more succumbed. & Nbsp;
The initial major influenza pandemic started in Siberia and Kazakhstan before spreading across Russia to Moscow and then Finland/Poland where it eventually settled throughout Europe & Nbsp; By 1890’s end, 360,000 had perished due to this pandemic.
The 1918 flu outbreak killed more than 50 million people worldwide and spread quickly throughout Europe, the U.S., and parts of Asia before going global. At its initial appearance there was no effective treatment or vaccine available to combat its deadly strain. & Nbsp;
Beginning in Hong Kong and then spreading throughout China and into America, Asian flu reached England six months after initial outbreak and caused 14,000 deaths within six months; later that same year a second wave took hold and caused approximately 1.1 million worldwide deaths, 116,000 being within America alone.
First identified in 1981, AIDS destroys an individual’s immune system and may result in disease being passed from body to body without resistance or treatment from immune-depleted bodies. First observed among American gay communities but suspected to have originated with West African Chimpanzee viruses during 1920s outbreak. Although treatments exist to slow progression of this deadly condition since discovery; 35 million individuals have succumbed.
Established for the first time in 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome is believed to have originated among bats before spreading through bat colonies into cats, humans and eventually China, before infecting over 8096 individuals and leading to 774 fatalities worldwide.
COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus – one in a family which includes both influenza and SARS – first detected in China’s Hubei province during November 2019. As no vaccine exists against it yet, its outbreak has spread globally with over 163 countries affected; as of March 27, 2020 nearly 24,000 deaths had already taken place as reported.
