Did history talk about Covid-19!

History repeated itself and no one learns, the decision-makers have no respect for the lessons of history. They think the lessons don’t apply to them. They think they can make history freely. So, they keep repeating the same mistake over and over and over. They are ignoring many facts such as knowing how and where to find the facts one needs to gain a fuller understanding of today’s contentious debates can help us understand not only what is being said, but it can also help us grasp what kinds of historical comparisons people are making and why they are making them.

Having a little glance over the history back in 1957 there was a similar case to Covid-19 to the point you can say identical which is the Asian Flu Pandemic that originated in China and spread worldwide. In the first months of the 1957 flu pandemic, the virus spread throughout China and surrounding regions. By midsummer, it had reached the United States, where it appears to have initially infected relatively few people. Several months later, however, numerous cases of infection were reported, especially in young children, the elderly, and pregnant women. This upsurge in cases was the result of a second pandemic wave of illness that struck the Northern Hemisphere in November 1957. At that time the pandemic was also already widespread in the United Kingdom. By December a total of some 3,550 deaths had been reported in England and Wales. The second wave was particularly devastating, and by March 1958 an estimated 69,800 deaths had occurred in the United States. And no one learns.

This is not the first time the world has a killer disease, not the last; however, what’s made this one well known not so much the effect but the open sky and the internet. Here are the most known as deadliest epidemics throughout history:

1.Smallpox (430 BC? – 1979):
The history of known killer diseases goes back to the 3rd century BCE when the Smallpox spread. The origin of smallpox is unknown. Smallpox is thought to date back to the Egyptian Empire around the 3rd century BCE (Before Common Era), based on a smallpox-like rash found on three mummies. The earliest written description of a disease that clearly resembles smallpox appeared in China in the 4th century CE (Common Era). Early written descriptions also appeared in India in the 7th century and in Asia Minor in the 10th century.

Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) is a contagious disease unique to humans. Smallpox is caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and Variola minor. The deadlier form, V. major, has a mortality rate of 30–35%, while V. minor causes a milder form of the disease called alastrim and kills ~1% of its victims. Long-term side-effects for survivors include the characteristic skin scars. Occasional side effects include blindness due to corneal ulcerations and infertility in male survivors.

The disease had been prevalent since as early as the 16th century, and according to academics, is said to have caused the deaths of as many as 500 million people in the 20th century, alone.

Historically, smallpox had a fatality rate of 30%, though its most severe forms were almost always fatal. The last diagnosed case of the disease occurring naturally was in 1977, while the WHO declared it eradicated in 1979. Killed more than 300 million people worldwide in the 20th century alone, and most of the native inhabitants of the Americas.

Smallpox is known as the only disease to be successfully eradicated, thanks in large part to global vaccination drives.

2. Cholera Pandemic (1817-today):

Cholera pandemics have struck since the 1800s, and to this day continues to affect millions of people, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths each year. Cholera is a bacterial infection that is mainly contracted through food and water. A recent cholera outbreak in Haiti made headlines last year, but the largest cholera outbreak known to mankind is the Third Cholera Outbreak that originated in India and spread far beyond its borders, killing as many as 23 000 people in Britain alone.

Big cholera pandemics in regions such as China, Russia, and India have led to the deaths of almost 40 million people. One of the largest outbreaks hit India in the early 20th century, killing over 800,000 people in just over two decades.

3. The Asian Flu Pandemic (1957)

The Asian Flu Pandemic was an outbreak of avian influenza that originated in China and spread worldwide. The estimated death rate was one to two million.

The 1957 flu pandemic was the second major influenza pandemic to occur in the 20th century; it followed the influenza pandemic of 1918–19 and preceded the 1968 flu pandemic.

 

In the first months of the 1957 flu pandemic, the virus spread throughout China and surrounding regions. By midsummer, it had reached the United States, where it appears to have initially infected relatively few people. Several months later, however, numerous cases of infection were reported, especially in young children, the elderly, and pregnant women. This upsurge in cases was the result of a second pandemic wave of illness that struck the Northern Hemisphere in November 1957. At that time the pandemic was also already widespread in the United Kingdom. By December a total of some 3,550 deaths had been reported in England and Wales. The second wave was particularly devastating, and by March 1958 an estimated 69,800 deaths had occurred in the United States.

4. Typhus fever in World War 1 (1945)

Epidemic typhus has always accompanied disasters striking humanity. Famine, cold and wars are its best allies. Typhus, also known as historical typhus, classic typhus, sylvatic typhus, red louse disease, louse-borne typhus, and jail fever has caused mortality and morbidity through the centuries, and on the Eastern Front during World War I,  it led to the death of thousands.

This disease is spread by lice. In the war conditions, there was poor sanitation that probably led to a greater density of lice, which meant that the transmission of typhus was more prevalent. During WW1, typhus caused three million deaths in Russia alone.

Epidemic typhus is an unpredictable disease that can suddenly re-emerge when the social organization is disrupted, as was observed in 1997 among Burundi’s Civil War refugees in central Africa. Wars are optimal conditions for body louse proliferation and their associated diseases. Thus, the control of lice with the combination of oral Ivermectin, clean clothes and insecticides will help to avoid disasters caused by typhus, trench fever, and relapsing fever during humanitarian catastrophes.

5. Cocoliztli epidemic (1576)

In the decades after Hernán Cortés invaded Mexico, one of the worst epidemics in human history swept through the new Spanish colony. A mysterious disease called “Cocoliztli” appeared first in 1545 and then again in 1576, each time killing millions of the native population. This “disease” refers to millions of deaths in the territory of New Spain, which is present-day Mexico. Cocoliztli refers to a collection of pests. The symptoms were very much the same as “Ebola” but included a dark tongue, jaundice and neck nodules.

6. Plague of Justinian (541-542)

This deadly pandemic affected the Eastern Roman Empire, specifically Constantinople and port cities along the Mediterranean sea. This pandemic was so severe, it killed off an estimated 25 million people, almost 13% of the world’s population. The plague returned in waves but was never as severe as this one. It was named after the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian, who ruled at the time. Necrosis of the limbs, as depicted in the image below, was one of the terrifying symptoms. 

7. Antonine Plague (165-180 AD)

This disease was also known as the plague of Galen, and historians suspect that it could have been smallpox or measles. This disease claimed almost up to 2 000 deaths per day in Rome. The total death toll was tallied at about 5 million.

8. The Third Plague Pandemic (1855)

The Third Plague Pandemic, also referred to as the Modern Plague, refers to a bubonic plague pandemic that started in the Yunnan province in China.  Over the next 20 years, it spread to Hong Kong and port cities around the world by rats that carried the infectious fleas responsible for the disease. It caused almost 10 million deaths.

9. The Black Death (1334-1771):

Also called The Great Plague, it originated in China and spread all along trade routes to Constantinople and Europe, where it claimed nearly 60% of the European population and completely wiped out many towns.

Often cited as one of the deadliest epidemics in the world, the black plague is said to have killed almost half of the population in Europe between 1346 and 1350 – with the highest death figure reported at 200 million people.

Recent scientific research into The Black Death revealed that the epidemic was a type of plague caused by the Yersinia pestis organism, which is the same organism responsible for the bubonic plague and various other plague forms.

 

This includes early plagues such as the Plague of Justinian (541-542AC), which reportedly claimed as many as 25 million lives, and later outbreaks of the bubonic plague in the 1850s, which killed over 12 million people.

All-in-all plagues caused by Yersinia pestis have claimed the lives of well over the 200 million potential victims of the Black Death.

10. The Great Flu (Spanish flu) Epidemic (1918-1919):

The Great Flu Epidemic has been recorded as the most devastating epidemic in history. With a death toll of somewhere between 20 million and 40 million, this disease killed more people than WWI.

The flu pandemic was caused by the H1N1 influenza virus, the same strain that caused the so-called swine flu pandemic in 2009. Fortunately, the black scenario did not happen and in August 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the end of the swine flu pandemic.

the Spanish Flu pandemic killed more people than Hitler, nuclear weapons and all the terrorists of history combined.

11. HIV/Aids global pandemic (the 1960s – present)

It is hard to determine when and where exactly HIV originated, but it is widely believed that it originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo around 1920 when the disease was spread from chimpanzees to humans.

Since the first cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome “Aids” were reported in 1981, infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has grown to pandemic proportions, resulting in an estimated 65 million infections and 25 million deaths.

12. Malaria (1600-today):

 

The idea that malaria could have been the cause of death for 50 billion people in human history derives from a statement from journalist Sonia Shah, whose book, “The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years” explores the history of the disease.

Taking the statement at face value – and assuming the speculative figures from demographer Carl Haub that over 100 billion people have lived on earth are accurate – this would mean that malaria has killed more than 50 billion people.

The figure is startling – but not completely implausible.

Author of “Parasites: Tales of Humanity’s Most Unwelcome Guests”, Rosemary Drisdelle, crunched the numbers using both Haub’s numbers and Shah’s claim, noting that if most people died between 8000BC and 1650AD, this could account for 5.4 million deaths a year.

Considering the lack of treatment that would have been available, and the fact that the disease has apparently been with humanity for 500,000 years, it’s not completely implausible.

In 1999, the WHO reported that malaria could have claimed the lives of close to 200 million people in the 19th century alone – and the group’s contemporary death figures say as many as 1.2 million deaths a year are still being attributable to the disease.

Taking this into account, it’s clear that malaria is the world’s biggest killer disease, having claimed billions of human lives.

Why we should learn from history; the lessons of history endure because human nature never changed. All the human emotions are the same today as in Egypt of the pharaohs or China in the time of Confucius: Love, hate, ambition, the lust for power, kindness, generosity, and inhumanity. Everything has a history, don’t ignore it. Performance in history courses can be a good indicator for all, it is the kind of knowledge can help the city manager and the engineer plan a new highway, city or park. It can also help us navigate our daily lives and learn to ask questions when we encounter people or places, we don’t initially understand. Listen to history with a future brain. Always ask what-if

 

 

 

References:

https://www.health24.com/medical/infectious-diseases/news/the-10-deadliest-epidemics-throughout-history-20170928

https://businesstech.co.za/news/general/71652/the-biggest-killer-diseases-in-history/

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/10/health/epidemics-through-history/