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Due to the corona virus epidemic in our country, many terms are being curious and investigated. After the coronavirus pandemic, which swept the whole world, was declared a pandemic, citizens started to research what is a pandemic and what it means. It has features such as being a new virus, being easily transmitted to humans and being transmitted from person to person continuously. Briefly; What is the pandemic declared by the World Health Organization, while it means both high contagiousness and the death of many people? What does the pandemic mean?
Pandemics or pandemic diseases are the general name given to epidemic diseases that spread and show their effects in a very wide area such as a continent or even the entire surface of the world.
Pandemic, in its simplest definition, is the name given to infectious diseases that threaten a large number of people simultaneously in the world.
In 2009, swine flu was declared a pandemic disease. Experts say hundreds of thousands of people may have died from swine flu.
According to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), roughly three criteria are sought for a disease to be a pandemic:
- Having a new virus
- Easily passable to people
- Easy and continuous transmission from person to person
A disease or medical condition cannot only be considered a pandemic because it is widespread and kills large numbers of people, but must also be contagious. For example, although cancer is a disease that causes many deaths in humans, it is not called a pandemic because it is not contagious. (It should be noted that some types of cancer can be caused by infectious agents).
The pandemics that remind themselves of the coronavirus have caused many people to die in the past. Now let’s take a closer look at the outbreaks that have swept the world from past to present.
1. Antoninus (Galen) Outbreak
Antoninus plague, an epidemic disease that occurred in the Roman Empire between 165-180 AD and was brought by soldiers returning from eastern expeditions, killed 2 thousand people a day and is one of the first known major plague epidemics. Although researchers suspect the illness to be smallpox or measles, its true cause remains unclear. The epidemic caused the death of Roman Emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, while the empire lost 30 percent of its total population.
2. The Plague of Justinian
In 541, when Emperor Justinian was sitting on the throne in Constantinople, an epidemic that started in Europe first reached Egypt, then Palestine, Syria and then Anatolia. Although Justinian closed all entrances and exits to Constantinople, the epidemic entered the city through rats, which were among the supplies brought by military units to the city. Hidden among the mice’s fur, a volatile insect named ‘Xenopsylla’, smaller than a millimeter, was carrying the deadly plague bacteria called ‘Pasteurella pestie’ in its stomach. These insects flew, settled among the feathers of other mice in the environment and quickly reproduced. Insects that were placed on any part of the human body and transferred the plague germ by biting caused the people they infected to die within a few days. Within a week, the plague spread rapidly in the city and deaths began. The surrounding of the palace was quarantined by military units. The death toll, which was initially a few hundred a day, soon reached thousands. When the graves were full, the dead began to be thrown into the sea. The disease continued its normal course and disappeared spontaneously over time, but until then Constantinapol, one of the most populous cities of the period, lost 40 percent of its population. The epidemic caused Byzantium, which lost its workforce and number of soldiers, to weaken and become vulnerable to attacks, which led to developments that radically changed the history of Europe.
3. Black Plague
The Black Plague epidemic, which occurred between 1346 and 1353, is thought to have killed between 75 and 200 million people. Although it is not possible to know the exact numbers, it is stated that the European population in particular has decreased by 30 percent to 60 percent in these years. It is known that the Black Plague epidemic, which caused the god and the church to be questioned in the society after the massacre, was one of the main reasons for the reform in religion and the beginning of the Renaissance in many areas of life.
4. Native American Encounters With Chickenpox
In the 15th century, Europeans discovered the new world. European explorers who came into contact with the natives of the American continent infected the people here with the viruses and bacteria they brought with them. Chickenpox had already killed a third of Europe, but the Native Americans, whose immune systems were underdeveloped like Europeans and whose medicines were inadequate, had no chance. Millions of people died and 90 percent of the indigenous population perished at that time.
This situation made it extremely easy for the American continent to be colonized by the Europeans. In total, by the beginning of the 19th century, one in two Native Americans died of diseases from Europe.
5.Cocoliztli Outbreaks
In the 16th century, the epidemic disaster experienced by the emergence of several different diseases in the region called “New Spain”, which is now Mexico, in the same period, is called “cocoliztli outbreaks”. As a result of today’s investigations, it is thought that the epidemics, which are thought to be caused by the salmonella bacteria found in fish, killed a total of nearly 15 million people between 1520 and 1576, were the beginning of the end for the Maya civilization and spread from Venezuela to Canada over the years.
6.Seven Different Cholera Outbreaks
There have been seven major cholera epidemics in our civilization history, but the third deadliest of these was the epidemic that occurred between 1852 and 1860. The main cause of cholera is contamination of drinking water, but that was not understood until the third epidemic. For long periods of time human excrement and waste also spilled into water sources used for drinking and cooking. India was at the time where this became a major disaster.
Even today, the Ganges river, one of the world’s most polluted rivers, contains 1.1 billion fecal bacteria per 100 milliliters, according to a 2011 study. In this ratio, 500 thousand times the rate that can be accepted to be in the worst water you can wash. Hindus believe that bathing in this river is sacred and they make the most of the river water in their daily work. For this reason, cholera is a common type of disease in this region. However, with the great epidemic in the 19th century, cholera spread throughout India, from there to Afghanistan and Russia.
According to official records, the epidemic, which caused the death of 1 million people even in Russia alone, reached Europe and Africa and finally America. Dangerous diarrhea occurs in 1 out of every 5 people infected with cholera. Half of these people die if not treated quickly. Although the exact number of people who died in the seven cholera epidemics is not known, it is possible to express this in millions. With the third epidemic, doctors found the cause of cholera, and after that date, the knowledge that drinking water should be purified and boiled has spread around the world.
7.Third Plague Epidemic
This epidemic, which started in China between 1855 and 1859 and spread to the world and caused the death of 12 million people in China and India alone, was called the “Third Plague” after the Justinian Plague and Europe’s Black Plague. The epidemic, whose effects lasted for a century, was carried to the American continent by rats from the far east. Unlike the previous plagues, advanced medical science enabled the study of this disease and the creation of therapeutic drugs. Antibiotics came first.
8.Typhus Outbreak During the First World War
The epidemic caused by lice carrying Typhus bacteria between 1914 and 1918 was a phenomenon brought about by the war. 25 million people fell ill in Europe and Asia, and nearly 3 million people died, especially in the Soviet Union countries. Western countries understood more quickly what caused the epidemic and measures were taken to get rid of lice. Eastern countries took action later, and so many more people died in this part of the world.
9.The Spanish Flu Pandemic
1918 – H1N1 influenza virus, which infects 500 million people in the years following World War I, caused the deaths of 50 to 100 million healthy people worldwide with high fever caused by it. This number is many times the number of people who died in the first and second world wars combined. What distinguishes this virus from others was that the stronger the immune system of the body it attacked, the higher the fever. Spanish Flu has been recorded as one of the biggest disasters in history.
10. Asian Flu Pandemic
1957 – Influenza-A virus, which started in China, is thought to be a disease transmitted to humans by mutating in ducks. The disease, called the Asian Flu, has claimed the lives of nearly 4 million people. The epidemic was prevented with a vaccine found the same. 40 million people were vaccinated within a year. Asian Flu has become one of the prime examples demonstrating the importance and impact of mass vaccination.
One Stranger
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