PANDEMICS AND ITS EXAMPLES

A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a replacement disease and is different from Epidemic. It is a kind of epidemic that has spread worldwide, affecting many countries and continents.

Pandemics are often

–Waterborne: transmitted by water, for instance, cholera;

–Zoonotic: transmitted between animals and other people, by direct and indirect contact, for instance, viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi;

–Vector-borne: transmitted by being bitten by mosquitos, fleas, ticks etc., for instance, malaria, dengue, plague;

–Food-borne: transmitted by preparing and eating food, for instance, salmonella, listeria and hepatitis A.

–Airborne: transmitted by air and droplets, for ex-

ample, flu, measles, SARS, MERS;

–Blood/body fluids borne: transmitted through contact, including transfusion, mother to child in utero, and sexual intercourse.

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Examples of Pandemics:

• COVID-19 Pandemic: The healthcare workers in Wuhan, China noticed a cluster of bizarre double lung infections with no clear cause. All the first cases of the COVID-19 might be traced back to at least one place: the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. These markets can create a perfect tract for brand spanking new viruses because many various animal species inherit close contact with each other.

This makes it easy for viruses to hop from one species to a different and because the viruses do that, their ordering changes and a replacement strain of virus starts. That virus can then infect a person’s because it comes into contact with a human’s mouth, eyes, nose, or blood when the infected animal is butchered.

• The 2009 swine influenza pandemic: The flu was characterized by an unusual combination of influenza viruses that had never before been seen in humans, and it began to spread round the globe quickly. By October, the U.S. started administering a vaccine to guard against this unique strain of the virus. The pandemic was considered over by August 2010, and by that point on the brink of 285,000 people round the world had died.

• The HIV/AIDS pandemic: the primary cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, appeared in 1981. Since then, quite 70 million people are infected round the world, and nearly 35 million people have died. HIV continues to be a serious public health issue and it’s still, nearly 40 years after the primary cases, a number one explanation for death globally. However, deaths have declined over time as new treatments became available.

• The 1918 Spanish flu/ Influenza pandemic: The 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak remains said to be one among the worst pandemics in recent history. the worldwide price was estimated at quite 50 million people, with about 675,000 deaths within the U.S. the primary cases were reported in Kansas, and as many thousands of U.S. troops were deployed during war I, the virus began to spread.

• The Black Death: An estimated 25 million people died thanks to the plaque which experts think was caused by bacteria for the illness in Europe.

• Smallpox: The Smallpox Pandemic began 1870-1874 which was a devastating disease caused by variola major and variola minor with symptoms of fever, vomiting, mouth sores, etc. Smallpox was a communicable disease caused by one among two viruses. In some cases, small pox may cause blindness. because of widespread vaccine use, it had been declared eradicated in 1980.

• PLAGUE OF JUSTINIAN (541-542): Thought to possess killed perhaps half the population of Europe, the Plague of Justinian was an epidemic of the plague that afflicted the Byzantine Empire and Mediterranean port cities, killing up to 25 million people in its year-long reign of terror.

• Third Cholera pandemic (1852–1860): this is often generally considered the foremost deadly of the seven cholera pandemics, originated in India. during a poor area of London, cases of cholera were tracked and was succeeded in identifying contaminated water because of the means of transmission for the disease. an equivalent year as his discovery (1854), it had been termed the worst year of the pandemic, during which 23,000 people died in Great Britain.

Other infectious hazards: Avian influenza, Ebola, Lassa fever, Leptospirosis, Meningitis, MERS, Pandemic influenza, valley fever, Seasonal influenza, yellow jack, Zika, (Sixth cholera pandemic, (1957–1958)Asian flu (H2N2), (1968–1969): Hong Kong flu.

Pandemics can change the course of society for several years to return. the present pandemic, COVID-19, is causing disruption across the whole world.