Illnesses Among Us: A Brief History of Some Outbreaks

Pamela Zuber

In late 2019, health officials identified COVID-19, a novel (new) coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Since then, the virus has spread well, like a virus.

COVID-19 and Its Progression

Also known as 2019-nCoV, COVID-19’s rapid, devastating journey has killed thousands and sickened thousands more across the globe. Its transmission is a pandemic because the outbreak has occurred over a large geographic area. To further contain the spread of the virus, some countries have closed their borders and have taken other measures. Such measures have included ending or restricting international travel, closing workplaces, and issuing orders requiring people to stay at home.

As it is an active outbreak, the ultimate consequences of COVID-19 remain to be seen, but it may be interesting to compare its spread to other pandemics throughout history.

The Black Death

Even hundreds of years later, it’s difficult to grasp the devastation of the Black Death.

Commonly known as the Black Plague, the Plague, the Great Plague, and other names, the Black Death was a pandemic that occurred from 1347 to 1351 and recurred periodically until 1400. Genetic researchers believe that either a bacterium or a virus caused the outbreak.

It’s believed that the Black Death contained three kinds of plague. The bubonic plague created lymph node swellings known as buboes and a host of nasty, lethal symptoms. Another plague, the pneumonic plague, affected the lungs. The least-common plague was a form of blood poisoning known as septicemic plague.

Like the COVID-19 outbreak that began in 2019, scholars believe that the Black Death originated in China. The Black Death decimated the region and stampeded through Asia and Europe, killing millions.

How many millions? While recordkeeping and international communication in the 1300s were obviously less sophisticated than today, many sources state that the pandemic killed around 25 million people, making the nickname Black Death eerily appropriate.

Disease diagnosis and treatment was also less sophisticated than today. History.com notes that “[n]o one knew exactly how the Black Death was transmitted from one patient to another, and no one knew how to prevent or treat it.”

The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918

Medical knowledge and communication were more advanced in the early twentieth century, but an influenza pandemic still killed millions in 1918-1919. In fact, estimates put the number of dead at around 50 million, with 675,000 in the United States.

The factor responsible for these deaths was the influenza H1N1 virus, which is also known as the H1N1v virus. The H1N1v virus is a mixture of viruses from humans, birds, and pigs, which gives it the nickname swine flu. This virus also created a pandemic that occurred almost a century later in 2009-2010.

Also known as the Spanish flu, the 1918-1919 pandemic may have originated at a U.S. Army camp and was fueled in part by World War I. Crowded military camp conditions provided convenient breeding grounds for the virus to spread.

Soldiers on the move then brought the virus to new locations, reminiscent of how soldiers helped carry the Black Death to new places and people hundreds of years before.

The SARS Pandemic of 2003

Unlike other pandemics, war didn’t exacerbate the SARS pandemic in the first years of the twenty-first century. It appears that convenient international travel may have done so.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) killed over 700 people and sickened more than 8,000 people in 2002-2003 and a smaller outbreak occurred in 2004. Like COVID-19, SARS is a coronavirus. It is known as SARS CoV. And like COVID-19 and the Black Death, the SARS pandemic appeared to originate in China. When they assisted people with SARS, health care workers and family members contracted the virus themselves. Health care workers then spread SARS to others during their work.

While many contracted the virus and died, the number of SARS cases was considerably smaller than the pandemics of the 1300s and 1918-1919. Public health officials, government authorities, and international organizations worked to end the transmission of SARS. They limited and discouraged travel in areas with many SARS cases.

For example, in 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations advised people not to visit Toronto, Ontario, Canada, an area that witnessed 38 possible SARS-related deaths and experienced about 250 cases overall. The WHO later lifted its warning against Toronto and other places.

Similarly, in 2020, governments hoped that their travel bans (such as forbidding people from traveling from Wuhan) would stem the flow of the COVID-19 virus. The WHO labeled the virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and a pandemic in 2020.

Conclusion

History repeats itself, and that includes the history of infectious diseases. People still even contract the bubonic plague.

Travel has made the spread of disease easier. One hopes that cooperative political practices and modern communication can stop such transmission and prevent additional outbreaks in the future.

About the author

Pamela Zuber is a writer and editor for Sunshine Behavioral Health addiction treatment who is interested in science and medicine, human rights, gender issues, mental health, and several other topics.

References

cdc.gov - Situation Summary

merriam-webster.com – Epidemic

merriam-webster.com - Pandemic

cnbc.com - Russia closes border with China to prevent spread of the coronavirus

britannica.com – Black Death

history.com – Black Death

cdc.gov - 1918 Pandemic (H1N1 Virus)

mayoclinic.org – Swine flu (H1N1 flu)

cdc.gov - Guidance for Persons Traveling to Areas Where SARS Cases Have Been Reported

nhs.uk - SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov - SARS: The First Pandemic of the 21st Century

cidrap.umn.edu - SARS in Toronto considered contained