Throughout the history of human existence, viruses and bacteria have always followed human beings, and the history of human development in addition to wars and natural disasters is the history of fighting infectious diseases, and the struggle between human beings and infectious diseases has almost never stopped. Every time an epidemic occurs, human lives and property are looted like never before! In the recorded history of mankind, there have been countless infectious diseases, and the top ten infectious diseases listed here have the greatest impact on mankind!
I. The plague in Athens
Around 430 and 427 BC, a great plague with a very high fatality rate occurred in Athens. In this unprecedented plague, about half of the population of Athens died, and the streets were full of corpses. The infected patient roams the streets like a ghost, looking for water to drink until he falls to the ground and dies.
Because the streets were full of dead dead bodies, dogs, eagles and crows all fed on human corpses, and soon these animals were also infected with the plague. The Greek historian Thucydides was only twenty-five years old at the time, and although unfortunately contracted the plague, he was cured. In his description, patients infected with plague would suddenly have a high fever, their eyes would be red as if they were about to spew flames, and their throats and tongue would be bloodshot and foul-smelling.
Even if someone is lucky enough to be cured, the life situation afterwards is miserable. Because those who survived either lost their fingers, toes and eyes, or lost their memory. The Plague of Athens is recorded in detail in relevant historical records, which was also the first serious plague in human history.
Second, the ancient Roman "Antony plague"
Between 164 and 180 AD, a plague combining smallpox, measles, typhoid fever and toxic shock struck the Roman Empire, which was then under Antony. According to the Roman historian Diocca, more than 2,000 people died of disease a day in Rome alone.
It is reported that the "Antony plague" is caused by infection, and the main symptoms of infected people are vomiting, severe diarrhea, high fever, and gangrene on the hands and feet. In addition to this, the patient has unbearable thirst and suppuration of the skin. The plague also claimed the lives of two Roman emperors, one Verus and the other his heir, Mark Smith. Aurelio · Anthony.
It is worth mentioning that this plague has appeared many times intermittently. Beginning in 164 AD, the Antonic plague revived in 427 and 429 AD. Because of this plague, the population of the Roman Empire was reduced by a third. A conservative estimate puts the number of people who died from the plague at around five million.
III. Justinian plague
Between 541 and 542 AD, there was a massive outbreak of plague in Egypt, a territory of Eastern Rome. Soon, this regional plague turned into a worldwide epidemic. The main victim of the epidemic was the Byzantine Empire, which had always claimed to be the heir to the Roman Empire. Because of the extremely high fatality rate of the epidemic, the Byzantine Empire's troops and labor force were sharply reduced, and the order of production and life was seriously damaged.
Even more suffocating, the plague directly stopped the Byzantine Emperor Justinian's dream of reunifying the Roman Empire. In 533 AD, Justinian launched a war against the western Mediterranean world, but just as he swept through North Africa and conquered Italy, an unprecedented epidemic broke out in his Egyptian possessions, and Justinian's dream of revival was dashed.
Justinian's plague differed from the Athenian plague in that it was more transmissible, with nearly 10,000 people dying almost every day. Because of the death toll, the bodies of patients are piled up on the streets. Emperor Justinian also almost contracted the plague, and in order to dispose of the corpse, he had to hire workers at high prices to dig a giant grave.
The plague then raged for about half a century, dying of about forty percent of the inhabitants of Constantinople and about a quarter of the population of the Eastern Roman Empire.
4. The Black Death in Europe
Between 1347 and 1351 AD, a plague of unprecedented scale broke out in Europe, the Black Death. The Black Death was arguably one of the deadliest diseases in human history, and later generations generally believed that it was caused by the plague bacteria. The Black Death, which first broke out in Sicily, spread across Europe within three years, killing nearly 25 million people.
A typical symptom of the Black Death is the appearance of many dark spots on the patient's skin, which is why this plague is called the "Black Death". Patients infected with the disease have little possibility of cure, and they will suffer unbearable pain before they die. According to later scholars, about 200 million people died from this special plague.
5. American smallpox
In the sixteenth century, a devastating plague, smallpox, broke out in Central America, which not only claimed the lives of tens of millions of Indians, but also wiped out the Inca civilization, which had reached its peak. Because of its high fatality rate, the plague has also been called by historians as "the greatest genocide in human history."
The catastrophe began with Columbus' discovery of the New World, and some researchers believe that European colonists gave smallpox blankets to the Indians, which led to the outbreak of the plague. In addition to smallpox, Europeans brought mumps, cholera, measles and other diseases.
European agriculture has a long history, and both humans and livestock have developed adaptations to similar bacteria, while the Indians, who have always been isolated, have not. Because of the underdevelopment of agriculture, they are rarely exposed to such diseases, and their bodies have no immunity. Of course, the spread of the disease is also two-way, and syphilis, which has been introduced into Europe from the Americas, has also caused the death of a large number of Europeans.
6. Mexican yellow fever
Yellow fever, also known as "black vomiting" and "American plague", is an acute infectious disease. Although there are now specific drugs for yellow fever, in some backward African countries, the disease is still the main cause of bleeding. According to records, the first worldwide yellow fever in history occurred in Mexico.
In 1648, a large-scale outbreak of yellow fever occurred on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, after which the epidemic was brought to the Americas, Africa, and a few European countries. The main vector of yellow fever infection is Aedes mosquito, and human-to-human transmission is also achieved through mosquito spikes.
In the thirties of the twentieth century, a live attenuated yellow fever virus vaccine was successfully developed, which was then put into vaccination in endemic areas. To this day, yellow fever remains a disease for which the World Health Organization is immunized.
VII. Cholera
There have been seven recorded cholera outbreaks in human history, the first of which was in 1817, and because five of these outbreaks occurred in the nineteenth century, cholera is also known as "the most feared and dramatic disease of the nineteenth century in the world".
From a medical point of view, cholera is a potent intestinal infection caused by Vibrio cholerae, and the typical symptoms of patients are diarrhea and vomiting, followed by severe muscle cramps and dehydration. The number of deaths caused by cholera in history is incalculable, with more than 38 million people dying from the disease in India alone in a hundred years.
In 1832, after the British cholera subsided, British doctor John Snow found the cause of the cholera outbreak in London - a pump that had long been contaminated with sewage, which also confirmed that water is one of the ways of cholera transmission.
8. Spanish flu
The Spanish flu is the second deadliest infectious disease in history, infecting a billion people worldwide in 1918 alone. This influenza is caused by mutations of the avian influenza virus, and the fatality rate is much higher than that of ordinary influenza.
In 1918, an outbreak of the "Spanish flu" broke out at Fenson Barracks in the Kansas area. In just one year, this extraordinary bird flu swept the globe, killing an estimated 40 million people, four times the fatality rate of World War I.
It is called the Spanish flu not because the disease first broke out in Spain, but because Spain has the largest number of infected patients. It was the time of World War I, and about eight million soldiers, kings, and civilians who returned home were infected with the flu.
9. Russian typhus
After the "October Revolution" of 1917, there was an outbreak of severe typhus in Russia, which spread by lice. Strictly speaking, Russian typhus is an acute infectious disease caused by rickettsia, and the clinical symptoms of patients are chills, severe headache, and high fever.
This severe epidemic had a huge impact on World War I, and the German army was tired of eliminating lice and loose military discipline, and there was a large-scale outbreak of typhus in the army. The disease spread all the way to Russia, where the plague spread rapidly due to the turmoil of the October Revolution. According to incomplete statistics, the epidemic has caused about three million deaths.
X. Malaria
Malaria has long been considered the deadliest disease. Many famous people in history have died of the disease, including the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun and Alexander the Great. In essence, malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites, and the clinical symptoms of patients usually manifest themselves as coma, epilepsy and even death, and in the fifty years between 1900 and 1950 alone, about 100 million people died from malaria worldwide. It wasn't until 2006 that Joe Cohen developed the first vaccine against malaria.