List of 10 Most Danger Epidemics in 170 Last Years

List of epidemics: Epidemic attacks occur repeatedly in World wide

1. Third plague pandemic (1855-1860)

Death estimate: 12 million in India and China alone,
Country: Worldwide

The third plague pandemic was a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan, China, in 1855 during the fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately led to more than 12 million deaths in India and China, with about 10 million killed in India alone. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1960, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year.

The name refers to this pandemic being the third major bubonic plague outbreak to affect European society. The first was the Plague of Justinian, which ravaged the Byzantine Empire and surrounding areas in 541 and 542. The second was the Black Death, which killed at least one third of Europe's population in a series of expanding waves of infection from 1346 to 1353.

2. Flu pandemic (1889-1890)

Death estimate: 1,000,000
Country: Worldwide

The 1889–1890 flu pandemic, better known as the "Asiatic flu" or "Russian flu", was a deadly influenza pandemic that killed about 1 million people worldwide. It was the last great pandemic of the 19th century.

The most reported effects of the pandemic took place October 1889 – December 1890, with recurrences in March – June 1891, November 1891 – June 1892, winter 1893–1894 and early 1895. For some time the virus strain responsible was conjectured to be Influenza A virus subtype H2N2. More recently,[when?] the strain was asserted to be Influenza A virus subtype H3N8.

3. Encephalitis lethargic (1915-1926)

Death estimate: 1.5 million
Country: Worldwide

Encephalitis lethargica is an atypical form of encephalitis. Also known as "sleeping sickness" or "sleepy sickness" (distinct from tsetse fly-transmitted sleeping sickness), it was first described in 1917 by the neurologist Constantin von Economo and the pathologist Jean-René Cruchet.

The disease attacks the brain, leaving some victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless. Between 1915 and 1926, an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica spread around the world. Nearly five million people were affected, a third of whom died in the acute stages. Many of those who survived never returned to their pre-existing "aliveness".

4. Spanish flu (1918-1920)

Death estimate: 17-100 million
Country: Worldwide

The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

To maintain morale, World War I censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Newspapers were free to report the epidemic's effects in neutral Spain, such as the grave illness of King Alfonso XIII, and these stories created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit. This gave rise to the name Spanish flu. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify with certainty the pandemic's geographic origin, with varying views as to its location.

Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill the very young and the very old, with a higher survival rate for those in between, but the Spanish flu pandemic resulted in a higher than expected mortality rate for young adults. Scientists offer several possible explanations for the high mortality rate of the 1918 influenza pandemic. 

Some analyses have shown the virus to be particularly deadly because it triggers a cytokine storm, which ravages the stronger immune system of young adults. In contrast, a 2007 analysis of medical journals from the period of the pandemic found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene promoted bacterial superinfection. This superinfection killed most of the victims, typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed.

The Spanish flu was the first of two pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza virus; the second was the swine flu in 2009.

5. Influenza pandemic, also known as Asian flu (1957-1958)

Death estimate: 1-4 million
Country: Worldwide

The 1957–58 influenza pandemic, also known as Asian flu, was a global pandemic of influenza A virus subtype H2N2 which originated in Guizhou, China and killed at least 1 million people worldwide.

The strain of virus that caused the pandemic, influenza A virus subtype H2N2, was a recombination of avian influenza (probably from geese) and human influenza viruses. As it was a novel strain of the virus, there was minimal immunity in the population.

The first cases were reported in Guizhou in late 1956 or February 1957, and were reported in the neighboring province of Yunnan before the end of February. On 17 April, The Times reported that "an influenza epidemic has affected thousands of Hong Kong residents". The same month, Singapore also experienced an outbreak of the new flu. In Taiwan, 100 000 were affected by mid-May and India suffered a million cases by June. In late June, the pandemic reached the United Kingdom.

H2N2 influenza virus continued to circulate until 1968, when it transformed via antigenic shift into influenza A virus subtype H3N2, the cause of the 1968 influenza pandemic.

6. Smallpox (1877-1977)

Death estimate: 500 million
Country: Worldwide

Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by one of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980. The risk of death following contracting the disease was about 30%, with higher rates among babies. Often those who survived had extensive scarring of their skin, and some were left blind.

The initial symptoms of the disease included fever and vomiting. This was followed by formation of sores in the mouth and a skin rash. Over a number of days the skin rash turned into characteristic fluid-filled bumps with a dent in the center. The bumps then scabbed over and fell off, leaving scars. The disease was spread between people or via contaminated objects. Prevention was by the smallpox vaccine. Once the disease had developed, certain antiviral medication may have helped.

7. Hong Kong flu (1968-1969)

Death estimate: 1-4 million
Country: Worldwide

The Hong Kong flu (also known as 1968 flu pandemic) was a flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one million people all over the world. It was caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift, a genetic process in which genes from multiple subtypes reassorted to form a new virus.

The first record of the outbreak in Hong Kong appeared on 13 July 1968. By the end of July 1968, extensive outbreaks were reported in Vietnam and Singapore. Despite the lethality of the 1957 Asian Flu in China, little improvement had been made regarding the handling of such epidemics. The Times newspaper was the first source to sound alarm regarding this new possible pandemic. There is a possibility that this outbreak actually began in mainland China before spreading to Hong Kong, but this is unconfirmed.

The 1974 smallpox epidemic of India was one of the worst smallpox epidemics of the 20th century.

Over 15,000 people contracted and died from smallpox between January and May 1974. Most of the deaths occurred in the Indian states of Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. There were thousands who survived but were disfigured or blinded. 

India reported 61,482 cases of smallpox to World Health Organization (WHO) in these five months. India had over 86% of the world's smallpox cases in 1974, primarily due to this epidemic. By January 1975, an operation was started aimed at containing the last cases of smallpox, called "Target Zero", with the identification of the last smallpox patient in India occurring on May 24, 1975. By 1980, smallpox was certified as being eradicated from the world.

Smallpox was eradicated due to the WHO's smallpox eradication program. This program was formally established in 1958, but because of logistics disagreements between the WHO and the Indian government, did not progress rapidly. Headway only began to take place in India after the reorganization of the WHO in the mid 1960s. 

8. Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS (1981-at present)

Death estimate: >32 million
Country: Worldwide

HIV/AIDS, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is considered by some authors a global pandemic. However, the WHO currently uses the term 'global epidemic' to describe HIV. As of 2018, approximately 37.9 million people are infected with HIV globally.

There were about 770,000 deaths from AIDS in 2018. The 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study, in a report published in The Lancet, estimated that the global incidence of HIV infection peaked in 1997 at 3.3 million per year. Global incidence fell rapidly from 1997 to 2005, to about 2.6 million per year, but remained stable from 2005 to 2015.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected. In 2018, an estimated 61% of new HIV infections occurred in this region. Prevalence ratios are "In western and central Europe and North America, low and declining incidence of HIV and mortality among people infected with HIV over the last 17 years has seen the incidence:prevalence ratio fall from 0.06 in 2000 to 0.03 in 2017. 

Strong and steady reductions in new HIV infections and mortality among people infected with HIV in eastern and southern Africa has pushed the ratio down from 0.11 in 2000 to 0.04 in 2017. Progress has been more gradual in Asia and the Pacific (0.05 in 2017), Latin America (0.06 in 2017), the Caribbean (0.05 in 2017) and western and central Africa (0.06 in 2017). The incidence:prevalence ratios of the Middle East and North Africa (0.08 in 2017) and eastern Europe and central Asia (0.09 in 2017)". South Africa has the largest population of people with HIV of any country in the world, at 7.06 million  as of 2017. In Tanzania, HIV/AIDS was reported to have a prevalence of 4.5% among Tanzanian adults aged 15–49 in 2017.

9. Swine flu pandemic (2009-10)

Death estimate: 151,700-575,400
Country: Worldwide

The 2009 swine flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic that lasted from January 2009 to August 2010, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic), albeit a new strain. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1, which resulted from a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine, and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, leading to the term "swine flu". Some studies estimated that 11 to 21 percent of the global population at the time—or around 700 million to 1.4 billion people (of a total 6.8 billion)—contracted the illness.

This was more than the number of people infected by the Spanish flu pandemic, but only resulted in about 284,000 (range from 150,000 to 575,000) fatalities for the 2009 pandemic. A follow-up study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the 2009 H1N1 flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu. For comparison, the WHO estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 people die of seasonal flu annually.

10. Coronavirus pandemic (2019-at present)

Death estimate: 164,943 (As of April 18, 2020)

Country: Worldwide

The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The outbreak was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, and recognised it as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.

As of 20 April 2020, more than 2.41 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in 185 countries and territories, resulting in more than 165,000 deaths. More than 632,000 people have recovered, although there may be a possibility of relapse or reinfection.

The virus is primarily spread between people during close contact, often via small droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, or talking. While these droplets are produced when breathing out, they usually fall to the ground or onto surfaces rather than remain in the air over long distances. 

People may also become infected by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their eyes, nose, or mouth. The virus can survive on surfaces for up to 72 hours. It is most contagious during the first three days after the onset of symptoms, although spread may be possible before symptoms appear and in later stages of the disease. Common symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Complications may include pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. The time from exposure to onset of symptoms is typically around five days, but may range from two to fourteen days. There is no known vaccine or specific antiviral treatment. Primary treatment is symptomatic and supportive therapy.

Recommended preventive measures include hand washing, covering one's mouth when coughing, maintaining distance from other people, and monitoring and self-isolation for people who suspect they are infected. Authorities worldwide have responded by implementing travel restrictions, quarantines, curfews and stay-at-home orders, workplace hazard controls, and facility closures. Many places have also worked to increase testing capacity and trace contacts of infected persons.

The pandemic has led to severe global socioeconomic disruption, the postponement or cancellation of sporting, religious, political and cultural events, and widespread shortages of supplies exacerbated by panic buying. 

The pandemic has led to one of the largest global recessions in history, with more than a third of the global population being in lockdown. Schools, universities and colleges have closed either on a nationwide or local basis in 197 countries, affecting approximately 99.9 per cent of the world's student population. 

Misinformation about the virus has spread online, and there have been incidents of xenophobia and discrimination against Chinese people and against those perceived as being Chinese, or as being from areas with high infection rates. Due to reduced travel and closures of heavy industry, there has been a decrease in air pollution and carbon emissions.

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Source: Wikipedia