Journey of humans overcome dangerous diseases in history

Pandemic is a nightmare haunting human civilizations for centuries. From Black Death, smallpox, Spanish flu to Ebola, SARS and Covid-19. These diseases appear like assassins left behind death and panic.

For a long time, the lack of scientific research has limited the ability to cope with the disease because people have applied ineffective and even wrong methods.

For example, the Black Death pandemic, one of the most fearsome epidemics in human history, broke out in the 14th century in Europe, took 24 million lives and reduced the average life expectancy of continents from 40 to 20.

Doctors have correctly discovered that this is a contagious disease in humans but mistakenly believe that the cause of the disease is toxic air while the real culprit is Yersinia pestis. So they isolated the sick from the community and designed a beak-shaped mask stuffed with camphor and roses to prevent the disease from spreading. Failure to control the disease makes chaos and death continue to spread.

The same mistake was made during the cholera outbreak in Broad Street, England, in 1854. Authorities made the mistake of thinking that cholera spread through air, not water. This resulted in 500 deaths in 10 days. But it was this French biologist Louis Pasteur, who created the first vaccine for rabies in 1885. This achievement started the work of a proactive approach to disease prevention.

In 1894 Yerssinia pestis was discovered by scientists and in 1928 was Penicillium fungus. After the 20th century, the mortality rate of diseases plummeted due to the development of anatomy, physiology, cytology, bacteriology and clinical medicine. In 1981, the World Health Organization declared the world had eradicated smallpox. This is the first victory and also the only radical victory to date, a major turning point of mankind.

According to WHO data, there is currently no preventive measure before the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the disease has a mortality rate of up to 35% and there is no cure for AIDS, the disease has claimed 32 million people. In the world.

With Covid-209, local and international organizations fight the disease. But thanks to scientific development, people can avoid making mistakes and win more easily in the great war with the disease despite many difficulties. Humans cannot avoid diseases but can't give up the fight.