Click here to directly jump to the list of epidemics
Epidemics (roughly translated meaning “Upon People” from ancient Greek epi = “upon/above” and demos = “people”) were historically and are still among the biggest concerns for humanity. The term epidemic describes infectious diseases that are quickly spreading among people of a certain population. If the epidemic spreads to most or all parts of the world, the disease then becomes a pandemic. A pandemic can therefore be described as an intercontinental, worldwide, or global epidemic.
As the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic shows, epidemics tend to now even spread faster in our modern globalized world. In fact, many leading scientists and experts on the topic consider the threat of epidemics the major threat to humanity as a whole, even more so than climate change. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world, is one of them. He has been warning the world of new major disease outbreaks that will spread quickly throughout the world for quite some years now.
But epidemics and pandemics of course have existed long before our modern globalized world. While they may have not spread as quickly, the lack of medical knowledge and efficient measures against them during those times, actually tended to make the epidemics even more deadly as the following list of epidemics will show you. This list of epidemics ranks the deadliest epidemics in known human history by the estimated number of deaths these major global outbreaks caused.
Just a heads up: Each one of these epidemics has tragically claimed more than a million lives…..
The 10 Deadliest Epidemics in Human History
1. Black Death Plague
2. Spanish Flu
Around 50 million deaths (some estimates go as high as 100 million)
Period: 1918 – 1920
Affected regions: Almost all regions of the world (27% of the contemporary world population got infected), primarily: USA, China, India, Western Europe, Western Africa, Eastern Africa, East Asia, South America
Disease: Influenza (a.k.a. Flu)
Caused by: Influenza A H1N1 Virus
Infection through: Infected humans spread the virus to others by coughing and sneezing.
Origin: The virus originated either in the USA or in China. Outbreak occurred in the last year of World War I, contributing to the rapid spread of the Influenza virus. Infected American soldiers brought the virus to Europe and Liberia, Africa (American colony at the time), from where it quickly spread throughout the entire world. Most nations involved in World War I censored any news about the pandemic in order to keep their troops’ morale high.
As a neutral party in the war, Spain was among the only affected countries to openly report about the Influenza A H1N1 outbreak, hence the pandemic became globally known as the “Spanish Flu”, even though it did not actually originate in Spain, nor was Spain the most affected nation.
3. AIDS Pandemic
4. Plague of Justinian
5. Third Plague Pandemic
6. Cocoliztli Epidemic
7. Aztec Smallpox Epidemic
8. Antonine Plague
9. Asian Flu
10. Persian Plague
The 10 Deadliest Epidemics in History
(at a glance)
(as of March 2020)
The 10 Deadliest Epidemics in History: |
---|
1. BLACK DEATH PLAGUE ~ 140 million deaths |
2. SPANISH FLU ~ 50 million deaths |
3. AIDS PANDEMIC ~ 36 million deaths |
4. PLAGUE OF JUSTINIAN ~ 30 million deaths |
5. THIRD PLAGUE PANDEMIC ~ 22 million deaths |
6. COCOLIZTLI EPIDEMIC ~ 10 million deaths |
7. AZTEC SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC ~ 7 million deaths |
8. ANTONINE PLAGUE ~ 5 million deaths |
9. ASIAN FLU ~ 3 million deaths |
10. PERSIAN PLAGUE ~ 2 million deaths |
List of the deadliest epidemics in known human history, sorted by the number of deaths that each of the outbreaks caused.