PANDEMICS
Scientists and experts could not settle on the proper definition of a pandemic, either it is an epidemic or a pandemic. But the only thing they accept is the outbreak of an infection, virus, or disease around the globe to be defined as a pandemic. Cholera, smallpox, influenza, and bubonic plague were considered to be the most harmful diseases for mankind in the past. An epidemic of such diseases has taken away the lives of 300-500 million people over the past 12000 years. There are several other examples of pandemics in the history of mankind; the most recent one is of COVID-19, an outbreak that took place in China in December 2019. Similarly, the Zika virus pandemic in Brazil in 2014 and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2016 have killed numerous people throughout the planet. Some of the pandemics that occurred in the last century are as follows:
HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC
This pandemic was at its peak from 2005-2012. Around 36 million people died due to HIV/AIDS. The first case came out in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, this pandemic has sustained itself as an outbreak, having killed 36 million people in 1981. Presently 31-35 million people are suffering from AIDS/HIV; the majority of the cases are in Sub-Saharan Africa. 5% of the majority in Sahara is affected by this disease resulting in 21 million people. People are becoming well informed about this disease, and better treatments are conducted to make it more controllable. The annual global number of deaths from AIDS/HIV has been reduced to 1.6 million from 2.2 million between 2005 and 2012.
FLU PANDEMIC
Influenza was the reason for this outbreak, with the death loss of 1 million across the globe. The 2Flu pandemic is also known as the Hong Kong Flue. The 1968 Flu was produced by the Influenza A virus subtype H3N2, a genetic branch of the H2N2 subtype. The first case for this pandemic came out on the 13th of July in 1968. After 17 days of the first case, the influenza virus was spread into Singapore and Vietnam, and in 3 months, it was an outbreak in countries like India, Australia, the Philippines, and the United States of America. The alarming thing about this pandemic was that even though it had killed fewer humans with a death rate nearly equal to 5%, it had brought more than a million people to death. In these statistics of dead people, 500,000 inhabitants of Hong Kong are included, and it has killed 15% of the total population at that point.
ASIAN FLU
Another Pandemic named ASIAN FLU out busted in China, in 1956, and continued till 1958. It was an epidemic of Influenza A virus subtype H2N2. In two years, this pandemic spread in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States. According to the reports mentioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of deaths due to this pandemic was 2 million, 69,800 deaths only in the United States.
SPANISH FLU
The most deadly pandemic was the Spanish Flu, out busted in 1918-1919, for human history. H1N1 virus with the genes of avian origin was the reason for the cause of this pandemic. The first case came out to be of a US military personnel in the spring of 1918. Around 500 million people were infected by this pandemic. It killed approximately 50 million of the population and around 675,000 people in the United States.
FLU PANDEMIC
This deadly outbreak was caused by Influenza in 1918, which infected one-third of the total world’s population and killed 20-50 million people around the globe. In this severe pandemic, the death rate was reported 10%-20%, taking away 25 million lives for the initial twenty-five weeks of the outbreak. The patients of this influenza pandemic spread this outbreak, affecting the children, the older persons, or the people with weak immune systems. It killed nearly 20-25 million people on the surface of Earth.
6th CHOLERA PANDEMIC
This outbreak was seen in the years 1910 and 1911 in India, having the death loss of greater than 800,000 people in that region. Later it reached towards the Middle East, Eastern Europe, North Africa, and Russia. It also became the reason for the last epidemic of Cholera in America (1910-1911). The health specialists in America quarantined the diseased, which resulted in just eleven deaths there. The Cholera infected cases have been reduced to some extent, but many people suffer this in India till now.