NUUS
Pandemics through the eyes
of History
It may seem sudden to us, it may also seem like we are living through exceptionally
unique circumstances, but history has seen it all before. Disease and plague have been a
part of history for as long as the earth has existed.
Kefiloe Manthata
Senwes Journalist
Tales of devastating pandemics are
as old as time. To give context and
relatability to the situation the global
community finds itself in at the moment,
we take a look at historic pandemics that
shook the world to a standstill over the
years. The good news is that the world
always survives.
Athens
The earliest recorded pandemic
happened during the Peloponnesian
War. After the disease passed through
Libya, Ethiopia and Egypt, it crossed the
Athenian walls as the Spartans laid siege.
Two thirds of the population are believed
to have succumbed to this pandemic.
Symptoms: fever, thirst, bloody throat
and tongue, red skin and lesions.
The disease, suspected to have been
typhoid fever, weakened the Athenians
significantly and was a significant factor in
their defeat by the Spartans.
11th Century: Leprosy
Leprosy did not become classified
as a pandemic from the onset. The
disease grew slowly, but it’s effects
were eventually shattering. Though
it had been around for ages, leprosy
grew into a pandemic in Europe in the
Middle Ages, resulting in the building of
numerous leprosy-focused hospitals to
accommodate the vast number of victims.
This was a slow moving bacterial disease
that proved fatal unless treated with
antibiotics.
1350: The Black Death
This was probably the most brutal and
most wide-spread of all the pandemics. It
is said to have been carried into Europe
through infected persons travelling
through the port of Messina entering
through Sicily in 1347 A.D. It spread
throughout Europe rapidly. Dead bodies
became so common that many remained
rotting on the ground and created a
constant stench in cities.
1817: First Cholera Pandemic
The first of seven cholera pandemics
over the next 150 years, this wave of
the small intestine infection originated in
Russia, where one million people died.
Spreading through faeces-infected water
and food, the bacterium was passed
along to British soldiers who brought
it to India, where millions more died.
The reach of the 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 formulated in
1885, but pandemics continued.
1918 The Spanish Flu
Also known as the Avian Influenza due
to the fact that it was caused by contact
with an infected bird. This pandemic
resulted in over 50 million deaths across
the world. The 1918 Spanish flu was first
observed in Europe, the United States
and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading
around the world. At the time, there were
no effective drugs or vaccines to treat
this killer flu strain. The flu disappeared
in the summer of 1919, when most of the
infected persons had either developed
immunities or died.
1981: HIV/AIDS
HIV was first identified in 1981 as AIDS.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
is a disease that destroys a person’s
immune system, resulting in eventual
death by diseases that the body would
usually fight off. Those infected by the
HIV virus encounter fever, headache,
and enlarged lymph nodes upon
infection. When symptoms subside,
carriers become highly infectious through
blood and genital fluid, and the disease
destroys T-cells. It is believed to have
developed from a chimpanzee virus from
West Africa in the 1920s. The disease
spreads through certain body fluids.
Treatments have been developed to
slow the progress of the disease, but 35
million people worldwide have died of
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SENWES SCENARIO | WINTER 2020