Pandemics History

Plague of Justinian

541 BCE

The plague of Justinian or Justinianic plague was the first recorded major outbreak of the first plague pandemic. The disease afflicted the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, severely affecting the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire and especially the latter's capital, Constantinople.

Black Death

1347

The Black Death was the beginning of the second plague pandemic, it was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people. The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history.

Smallpox in America

1520

Following the arrival of the Spanish in the Caribbean, diseases such as smallpox, measles and bubonic plague were passed along to the native populations by the Europeans. With no previous exposure, these diseases devastated indigenous people, with as many as 90% dying throughout the north and south continents.

The Third Pleague Pandemic

1855

The third plague pandemic was a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan, China, in 1855.This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately led to more than 12 million deaths in India and China (and perhaps over 15 million worldwide), and at least 10 million Indians were killed in India alone (then under British Raj Colonial Rule), making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.

Spanish Flu

1918

The Spanish flu was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. Nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected in four successive waves. Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it the one of the deadliest pandemics in human history after the Black Death bubonic pleague.

Asian Flu

1957

Starting in Hong Kong and spreading throughout China and then into the United States, the Asian flu became widespread in England where, over six months, 14,000 people died. A second wave followed in early 1958, causing an estimated total of about 1.1 million deaths globally, with 116,000 deaths in the United States alone.

COVID-19

2019

COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is a disease caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2 and was discovered in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. It is very contagious and has quickly spread around the world.