How did the 5 worst pandemics of human history end?

As human civilization grows, so do more and more diseases. The fact that a large number of people live together and close to animals while hygiene and nutrition requirements are not met is the source of the disease that causes disease to multiply. Along with that, as more and more routes of trade, trade and exchange are opened, it also means that the path of disease transmission is increasingly spreading, creating the first global pandemics. first.

How did the 5 worst pandemics of human history end? Picture 1

A scene on the streets of London during the Great Plague of 1665. Photo: Getty

However, after experiencing pandemics, people gradually learned how to limit the spread and prevent the disease with the introduction of measures such as isolation, public health research or finding vaccines. Here is how the five most terrible pandemics of human history have ended.

Justinian plague - No one left to die

Three of the deadliest pandemics ever recorded were caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, or plague. People get the bacteria that cause diseases from rodents such as rabbits, mice, etc., through the intermediate host, the infected flea.

The Justinian plague may have originated in Egypt in 541 AD and then spread to other continents via commercial ships containing infected flea-carrying rats. When the plague hit the Byzantine Empire's capital Constantinople, it caused about 300,000 deaths in its first year.

The Justinian pandemic is also considered to be the first ever recorded in human history when spreading throughout Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Arab world.

"People really don't know what to do to deal with this epidemic except staying away from those who are sick," says Thomas Mockaitis, a historian at DePaul University.

The Justinian plague only ended when it caused about 30-50 million deaths, equivalent to half the world population at the time.

Black Death - The birth of quarantine

Plague was a nightmare in human history but it did not really end when 800 years later, this disease came back and made Europe "buck" in "Black Death" year. 1347 with 200 million died in just 4 years.

However, the "Black Death" also marked the first time isolation measures were taken to prevent the disease.

At the time, people still had no scientific understanding of the spread of the disease but they knew there were a few things they could do to limit this. That is why prehistoric officials in the port city of Ragusa decided to isolate new sailors who arrived until they could prove they were not sick.

First, sailors will stay on their ships for 30 days in accordance with a law called a "tretino". Subsequently, the authorities decided to increase the quarantine period to 40 days in a new law called "quarantino", the origin of the word "quarantine" (meaning quarantine) in English and gradually became the name of the quarantine. a measure to prevent diseases.

"It was really effective" in stopping the spread and ending the disease, historian Mockaitis said.

London plague - Isolate infected people

London has never had a "break" before the plague attacks after the Black Death. The plague appears here every 20 years from 1348 - 1665 with 40 outbreaks within 300 years. Each time a new outbreak of plague occurs, 20% of men, women and children living in the capital of England have died from the disease.

In the early 1500s, Britain implemented the first law to separate and isolate sick people. Families affected by the epidemic will be oiled with a bale of grass hanging from a stick outside. If someone has a relative with bubonic plague, he or she will need to bring a white cane when going to public places. The 1665 plague was the last outbreak but also one of the worst outbreaks that lasted for centuries, killing 100,000 Londoners in just 7 months.

All recreational activities in public places are strictly prohibited and patients are required to stay indoors to prevent the spread of disease. Although it was cruel to 'house' ill people in their homes and bury their bodies in mass graves, it was the only way at the time to make the last outbreak of the deadly epidemic dead. this is the end.

Smallpox - Found the vaccine

Smallpox is an epidemic that has spread throughout Europe, Asia, and Arab countries for decades, becoming an obsession in human history. 3 out of every 10 people who get smallpox die while the rest are full of scars.

Native people in Mexico and the United States do not have a natural immune system against smallpox and the virus has killed tens of millions of people there.

"No population devastation in human history is as terrible as what happened in the Americas when 90-95% of indigenous people were wiped out within a century," said historian Mockaitis. , and added information: "Mexico's population has decreased from 11 million before the epidemic to 1 million."

Centuries later, smallpox became the first virus-caused pandemic to end thanks to the discovery of a vaccine. At the end of the 18th century, an English doctor named Edward Jenner laid the foundation for the use of vaccines to prevent disease from humans. In 1796, Jenner conducted an experiment when he collected fluid from cowpea spots on the arm of a cowherd girl and implanted the arm of a healthy 9-year-old boy - his gardener's son. Jenner then injected the substance containing the smallpox pathogen into the boy, but the boy did not get sick.

Thanks to the discovery of Edward Jenner, nearly two centuries later, in 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox completely wiped out from Earth.

Cholera - The victory of public health science

By the early to mid-19th century, cholera was raging throughout England and killing tens of thousands of people. The theory at the time explained that the disease was caused by an assassination called "miasma". However, an English doctor named John Snow has questioned this mysterious disease may be related to the water of London when the disease caused the victims to die in just a few days with the first symptoms. first.

Dr. Snow acted like a "scientific detective" when researching patient records in hospitals as well as reviewing morgue reports to track the exact location of the outbreak. this disease. He created a geographic chart of cholera deaths over a 10-day period and discovered an outbreak of 500 deaths around a water pump on Broad Street - a well-known well in the city. People often come to drink water.

"As soon as I scrutinized the situation and the surge in cholera cases, I questioned some of the contaminated water sources on Broad Street," Snow wrote.

With relentless efforts, Dr. Snow persuaded the local authorities to move the water pump on Broad Street and, miraculously, the cases were reduced.

Snow's actions do not end the cholera overnight, but these efforts have helped people around the world pay more attention to urban sanitation and to protect water from being contaminated.

Although cholera has been largely wiped out in developed countries, it remains a silent "killer" in third-world countries, which lack appropriate waste disposal systems and meet limited access to clean drinking water.