World Pandemics

Plague of Justinian

541 BCE

The Byzantine Empire was in one of its moments of greatest splendor when a plague epidemic came to obscure the mandate of Emperor Justinian. It is the first plague epidemic on record. It had claimed the lives of 4 million people. The economic consequences were catastrophic, as there were times when the number of dead exceeded that of the living.

Black Death

1347

Humanity experienced the worst outbreak of this disease in the mid-fourteenth century. Until five centuries later its animal origin was not discovered, in this case rats, which during the Middle Ages lived together in large cities with people and even traveled on the same transport. The European population went from 80 to 30 million people

Smallpox

1520

The variola virus, which has been known to affect humans for at least 10,000 years, is the cause of the disease known as smallpox. It was a serious and extremely contagious disease that decimated the world population since its appearance, reaching mortality rates of up to 30%.

Spanish Flu

1918

In March 1918, during the last months of the First World War, the first case of Spanish flu was recorded. This virulent strain of the flu virus spread around the world at the same time that troops spread out on European fronts. Health systems were overwhelmed and funeral homes could not cope. Recent studies have revealed more precise data. It is estimated that the global mortality rate was between 10 and 20 percent of those infected, with between 20 and 50 million people dying worldwide.

Asian Flu

1957

First recorded in the Yunnan Peninsula, China, the influenza A (H2N2) virus of avian origin appeared in 1957 and in less than a year had spread throughout the world. This pandemic registered one million deaths worldwide.

Hong Kong Flu

1968

Just ten years after the last great flu pandemic was overcome, the so-called Hong Kong flu appeared again in Asia. A variation of the influenza A (H3N2) virus was recorded in this city in 1968 and spread throughout the world in a pattern very similar to that of the Asian flu. One million people were the victims caused by this new strain of flu.

VIH

1981

One of the most serious and most recent pandemics known by today's society is that of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, better known as AIDS. The first documented cases took place in 1981, and since then it has spread throughout the world, concentrating a large part of the efforts of world health organizations. It is believed that its origin was animal. It is estimated that HIV may have caused around 25 million deaths worldwide.