“Pandemic”, probably one of the most used words these days, all thanks to COVID-19. In this blog I am going to tell you about the three worst pandemics of the human history, how the mankind survived it and its post impact. But before we begin with the topic let us first understand what is meant by pandemic and it’s co-related words, epidemic and endemic.
Epidemic disease: A disease which affects many persons at the same time and spreading from person to person in a locality, i.e, community spread. Example – West Africa ebola virus.
Pandemic disease: An epidemic disease that has spread over a large area i.e., country, continent or the whole world. Example – Cholera, Bubonic plague, smallpox.
Endemic disease: A disease confined or restricted to a particular location, region or population. Example – Malaria, chickenpox.
Reasons:
Pandemics have a profound impact on the society. Apart from high morbidity and mortality rate the infectious disease causes, they also cause significant economic, social and political disruption. The reason is increased global warming, urbanization, global travel and integration, greater exploitation of nature. This leads to emergence of highly infectious disease, undiscovered until then. Other reasons include ignorance of health infrastructure and research, unpreparedness to face such calamity. Also to some extent the spread of such diseases is also due to negligence shown by humans.
Now you might have got the idea about classification of disease spread and the reasons for same. So let us now head towards the three worst pandemics in the human history. Starting with the first one….
1. The black death.
The black death aka bubonic plague is still considered as the most deadliest pandemic in the recorded human history. It most likely originated in Central or East Asia and gradually spread over other parts of the world , causing deaths of 25-200 million people, that’s roughly equal to Brazil’s population. It emerged during the period from 1346 to 1353, when there wasn’t much advancement in medical field. The disease was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Recent research suggests that this was the second wave of plague, the first one dating as back as ‘Neolithic decline’ around 3000 BCE.
The 13th-century Mongol conquest of China caused a decline in farming and trading. Economic recovery had been observed at the beginning of the fourteenth century. In the 1330s, many natural disasters and epidemics led to widespread famine, starting in 1331, with the deadly plague pandemic arriving soon after. Other conditions, such as war, famine, and weather, contributed to the severity of the Black Death. Due to lack of research and incentive to find out the reason, many considered the plague to be a punishment by gods. Climate change in Asia led to rodents fleeing from dry grasslands and the fleas around these rodents were transmitters of disease.
Symptoms of the disease include fever of 38–41 °C, headaches, painful aching joints, nausea and vomiting, and a general feeling of malaise( discomfort) . Left untreated, of those that contract the bubonic plague, 80 percent die within eight The most commonly noted symptom was the appearance of buboes in the groin, neck, and armpits, which oozed pus and bled when opened.
With such a large population decline from the pandemic, wages soared in response to a labour shortage. On the other hand, in the quarter century after the Black Death in England, it is clear many labourers, artisans, and craftsmen, those living from money-wages alone, did suffer a reduction in real incomes owing to rampant inflation. Landowners were also pushed to substitute monetary rents for labour services in an effort to keep tenants. There was large scale reforestation and freeing up of land. It also led to prosecution of group such as Jews, friars, foreigners, lepers and Romani. The most accepted theory of end of the plague is implementation of quarantines.
2. The Spanish flu of 1918
The second in the list is Spanish flu aka influenza pandemic of 1918. It was caused my H1N1 influenza A virus, which is also responsible for the 2009 swine flu pandemic. From February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million, that’s roughly equal to population of Pakistan and Indonesia combined and 1/3rd of the world population at that time. The 4 consecutive waves of pandemic left 17 to 50 million dead with another figure of 50 to 100 million stands disputed. First cases were reported during WW1, among the allied forces but the reports were censored to maintain the morale. However the newspapers were free to report, which led to reports of epidemic emerging from Spain. This created a false impression of Spain being hard hit and hence the pandemic was named after Spain. The Spanish flu resulted in higher mortality rate among young adults. The virus triggers a cytokine storm which damages the stronger immune system of young adults.
Malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, poor hygiene, all due to recent war were among the reasons for pandemic.
Andrew Prince – Smith argues that the virus turned in favor of allied powers during WW1. He provides data about the viral waves hit the central powers much before the allies and that the mortality and morbidity rate in Germany and Austria was much higher than in Britain and France. Many businesses in the entertainment and service industries suffered losses in revenue, while the healthcare industry reported profit gains. The pandemic also led to success of women in medical field as a large number of them were attending colleges and failure on part of medical doctors to contain and prevent spread of virus.
Maritime quarantines were declared on islands such as Iceland, Australia, and American Samoa, saving many lives. Social distancing measures were introduced, for example closing schools, theatres, and places of worship, limiting public transportation, and banning mass gatherings. Wearing face masks became common in some places, such as Japan. Vaccines were also developed, but as these were based on bacteria and not the actual virus, they could only help with secondary infections. The actual enforcement of various restrictions varied.
A later study found that measures such as banning mass gatherings and requiring the wearing of face masks could cut the death rate up to 50 %, but this was dependent on them being imposed early in the outbreak and not being lifted prematurely.
3. Plague of Justinian
Imagine it’s 541 AD, you are an ordinary citizen in the Roman empire. You own a grain shop and regularly carry out your business. You start hearing news about something happening to people but you don’t know what exactly. You ignore it thinking it’s rumor. Few days the news seems more factual. You witness young, old, man, woman everyone suffering mysteriously and then dying. You are scared and confused. After few days you observe that you are having black spots on body and later swollen lymph nodes and gangrene (death of tissues of skin affecting toes, fingers and limbs) and after a few days you die, mysteriously.
Yes, what you just read was the misery people suffered due to the plague of justinian from 541 AD to 549 AD. It was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, same one responsible for the Black Death pandemic. The disease afflicted the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, severely affecting the Empire Sasanian and the Roman Empire and especially its capital, Constantinople. It was named after the then Roman emperor in Constantinople, Justinian l. Court historian Procopius says that even the emperor had contracted the disease and recovered in 542.Strains closely related to the ancestor of the Justinian plague strain have been found in Tian Shan, a system of mountain ranges on the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China, suggesting that the Justinian plague originated in or near that region.
The plague of justinian was the first known plague pandemic in human history. It resulted in death of an estimated 25 – 100 million people in over two centuries of recurrence, almost half of the population of Europe then. Some sources speak of a rise of 5000 deaths per day in Constantinople. It’s cultural and social impact was similar to that of the Black Death pandemic which devastated Eurasia in the 14th century. There is no record so as to how the plague of justinian ended, sources just that it disappeared in 750 CE.
So with this I conclude the topic here. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.