List of historical plagues

Plagues in history

Plagues retain an important place in human history. Humanity has always been vulnerable to and fearful of infectious disease, which has wrought misery, devastation, and havoc throughout the world since ancient times. Times of pestilence have interrupted human affairs and brought great suffering which, in historic times, has often been described and reported in detail. Outbreaks result in extreme loss of life and damage to institutions and economies.

In early cities, large populations were concentrated into crowded communities that often had limited access to fresh water and unregulated disposal of waste. In these communities, waves of disease, whatever the agent of infection, created terror and panic. Accounts of armies that were depleted or defeated by bouts of infection stretch back to the ancient world, and epidemics have frequently ruined the plans and ambitions of military leaders.

Two well-known examples of the impact of disease on history are the Black Death, which periodically visited various peoples throughout Asia and Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, and the overwhelming pandemics of measles and smallpox, as well as other Eurasian diseases, which Europeans brought to people in the New World. Both of these devastating occurrences were made more severe by the fact that each population was "biologically naïve". When a population that has been relatively isolated is exposed to a new disease or a group of new diseases, it has no inborn resistance; the human body succumbs at a much higher rate, resulting in what is known as a "virgin soil" epidemic.

During the disease outbreak of the Middle Ages, the single word "plague" was associated with a disease which reached epidemic and even pandemic proportions in Asia and Europe. The general consensus is that this was caused by bubonic plague and its variants, disease of the lymphatic system caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, which can be spread by fleas from rodents to humans. However, recent investigations have suggested otherwise, with some research suggesting that the ongoing outbreaks were caused by a viral hemorrhagic disease, perhaps similar to Ebola.[1]