Pandemics

Plague of Justinian (541CE)

541

It was carried over the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt, where plague-ridden fleas hitched a ride on black rats that snacked on grain. killed 30-50 million people. The cure is antibiotics.

Black death

1347

symptoms were blood and pus seeped out of these strange swellings, fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains and then death. The cure they used was ineffective and unsanitary bloodletting and boil-lancing.

Small pox

1500

symptoms were fever, malaise, widespread skin rash – flat spots, severe headache, backache. abdominal pain. vomiting. diarrhoea. The cure for smallpox became the first virus epidemic to be ended by a vaccine.

The Great Plague of London

1665

symptoms were fever, delirium, painful swellings of the lymph nodes in the, neck, armpits and groin ('buboes'), vomiting, muscle cramps, coughing up blood. the "Cure" was to shut people in their homes and leave them to die.

Cholera

1817

It hit British Empire and its navy spread cholera to Spain, Africa, Indonesia, China, Japan, Italy, Germany and America, where it killed 150,000 people. A vaccine was made in 1885, but pandemics continued. Symptoms were watery diarrhea, vomiting. thirst. leg cramps, irritability.

Fiji Measles Pandemic

1875

fever and a rash with any of the following: runny nose, sneezing, cough, red/watery eyes, white spots inside the mouth (Koplik spots). A measles vaccine was created in 1982 as a single dose for children

Spanish Flu

1918

Symptoms were fever. Dry cough. Headache and body aches. Sore throat. Chills. Runny nose. Loss of appetite. Extreme tiredness (fatigue). But the flu threat disappeared in the summer of 1919 when most of the infected had either developed immunities or died.

SARS

2003

The cure for this was quarantine. symptoms were headache, general feeling of discomfort, body aches and diarrhea