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The Great Peloponnesian War
The Great Peloponnesian War
The Great Peloponnesian War
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People will argue when the first documented case of pandemic actually happened. The Peloponnesian War Pestilence recorded to have taken place in 430 BC during the war between Athens and Sparta, it was documented by a historian Thucydides. This was a great pestilence that wiped out 30,000 of the citizens of Athens (roughly one to two thirds of all Athenians died). It is said that not many days after Attica was invaded by Archidamus, the plague first began to show itself among the Athenians. Since the devastation of the plague was so extent and the physicians at first were ignorant, that they had never experienced anything of this magnitude before. They had no proper way to treat it, and ultimately died themselves, as they visited the sick most often. It is said that the sickness first began in Ethiopia and descended into Egypt and Libya, then spreading into Athens. The symptoms were described as something that spread at an incredible rate, causing fever, vomiting and diarrhea, and a general delirium, often killing the infected after only a few days. Ironically the detailed desc...
...influenza pandemic in one way or another; the use of quarantines were extremely prevalent among them. Also, the pandemic is directly responsible for the creation of many health organizations across the globe. The organizations help track and research illnesses across the globe. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for example, strive to prevent epidemics and pandemics. They also provide a governing body with directives to follow in case an outbreak does occur, and if one shall occur the efforts of organizations across the globe will be crucial for its containment. It is amazing that with modern medicine and proper organization that influenza still manages to make its appearance across the globe annually.
the biomedical crisis, later known as The Black Death, or bubonic plague, that attacked Europe during the fourteenth century. Cantor later tells about how the people came in contact with the plague and the symptoms that later occurred. The people who had been affected by the plague would first experience flu like symptoms, which usually included a high fever, in the second stage they would get buboes, which...
After a series of biochemical tests and evaluation to determine several unknown bacteria, the bacterium Yersinia pestis was chosen to report. The discovery of Y. pestis dates back to 1894 by French/Swiss physician and bacteriologist named Alexandre Yersin. The name Yersinia pestis is synonymous with its more common name, the plague. Y. pestis is known to infect small rodents such as mice and rats, but is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected animal or flea. Although this bacterium is known to still cause illness today, it is infamous for three pandemics that occurred in earlier centuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first recorded pandemic occurred in 541 A.D. and is known as the Justinian Plague. The second pandemic originated in China in 1334 and has received the egregious name the “Black Death.” Finally, the third outbreak took place in the 1860’s and is known as the Modern Plague. It wasn’t until the end of the Modern Plague that scientists discovered the causative agent and mode of transmission of the Yersinia pestis bacterium.
This Radiolab podcast talks about how the HIV/AIDS epidemic started: the ultimate patient zero story, a very recent event that still hurts and still bleeds.
In 1300, multiple out breaks of the Black Plague arised. For example, in the thirteenth century an outbreak in China killed one third of the population. Several dates before this time showed the disease was present years ago in Europe. Dying from the Plague was scary to most people and Jordan Mcmullin, an author stresses, “Whenever the Plague appeared the sadness of death was terrifying” (Mcmullin n.pag.). Death has always been frightening, but when a country plagues with disease, death becomes a terrible fear, the Plague scared the people of 541, and 542, when their outbreak of the Plague spread. Therefore, while other outbreaks of the Black Plague took place, the fourteenth century outbreak in Europe was certainly the worst.
The influenza or flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919, the deadliest in modern history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and estimates place the number of victims anywhere from 25 to 100 million. More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic. The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the U.S. and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. Surprisingly, many flu victims were young, otherwise healthy adults. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain or prevent its spread. In the U.S., citizens were ordered to wear masks, and schools, theaters and other public
Pandemics, once started, are expected to spread worldwide. They cannot be stopped from spreading, once they outbreak, they continuously spread. The Black Death was a disease that spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. There were approximately 25 million deaths in Europe alone. The Black Death was caused by the bacterium called Yersinia Pestis during the 13th century. The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague was caused by a single contamination of one person. The Black Death was caused by a single bacterium, overcrowding in areas like Europe, which effected a huge part of the population by simply killing it off.
the first sign. What was worse about the plague was that the physicians at the time couldn 't find a cure
From 166 A.D. to 180 A.D., The Antonine Plague spread around Europe devastating many countries. This epidemic killed thousands per day and is also known as the modern-day name Smallpox. It is known as one of deadliest plagues around the world.
Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 .
Roos, Anna Marie E. "Plague, Early History." Infectious Diseases: In Context. Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 627-634. In Context Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
The Athenian plague was an epidemic that began in the summer of 430 B.C. in Athens—a year after the Peloponnesian war in 431 B.C. It was supposed that the plague was a result of excess number of Athenians within the city walls also known as the long walls—a military strategy by Pericles which consisted of building walls that connected the city to its port . The surplus of Athenians led to a shortage of food, water, an absence of sewage systems, and other important factors were said to have brought about the plague. It first appeared in the south of Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and later on in the Persian Empire, and Rome before arriving in Athens . The disease attacked the population of Piraeus and then travelled to Athens where the death tolls were greater. The plague came back in 429 were it claimed the most lives, and later on in the winter of 427/426 B.C were it claimed more lives. From man to woman, the rich and the poor, and the elderly and the young, everyone in the Athenian population was affected by the disease. As it will become evident, the Plague of Athens devastated Athens and which made it harder to recover from , as it resulted in the failure of its social order, weakened the Athenian government, and the Athenian military.
History has been filled with many disasters. The Bubonic plague has been responsible for three of those disasters. The first disaster, The Plague of Justinian, occurred in Constaniople in 542. This specific outbreak killed an estimated 70,000 people in two years. At its peak, 1,000 people died each week, and many more were infected but recovered successfully. This was the first time Bubonic plague became known to society. This would not be the last time the plague would strike.
A pandemic is defined as a disease that has the ability to outbreak and spread globally. A pandemic is determined by how a particular disease spreads rather than how many lives it has claimed. A future pandemic can easily occur if and when a mutation of a new influenza A virus emerges. A pandemic of this type is easily possible to spread quickly and globally due to that when a new strand of the virus emerges, it will be highly unlikely that the human population will have a built up immunity to it.
1. First plague pandemic known as PLAGGUE OF JUSTINIAN, from AD 541 to ~750. It spreads from Egypt to the Mediterranean and northwestern Europe. In Egypt, it destroyed 40% of the CONSTANTINOPLE (a city of Africa) and went on to destroy up to a 1/4th of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean. In Europe, the population drop by around 50% because of plague.