This article is about outbreaks of disease. There is also a company called Pandemic Studios. Pandemic Studios is a video game developer based in Los Angeles and Brisbane. ...

A pandemic or global epidemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease that affects people or animals over an extensive geographical area (from Greek pan all + demos people). An epidemic is generally a widespread disease that affects many individuals in a population. ... In medicine, infectious disease or communicable disease is disease caused by a biological agent (e. ...

Common killers and pandemics

A disease is not pandemic specifically because it kills a lot of people. For example, the class of diseases known as cancer are responsible for a large number of deaths, but cancer is not considered a pandemic because it is not infectious (even though certain infectious agents are known to increase cancer risk). When normal cells are damaged or old they undergo apoptosis; cancer cells, however, avoid apoptosis. ...

Pandemics through history

There have been a number of significant pandemics in human history, all of them generally zoonoses that came about with domestication of animals - such as influenza and tuberculosis. There have been a number of particularly significant epidemics that deserve mention above the 'mere' destruction of cities: A history resource for kids -Chronology of Events in History, Mythology, and Folklore. ... Zoonosis is any infectious disease that can be transmitted from animals, both wild and domestic, to humans. ... Domesticated animals, plants, and other organisms are those whose collective behavior, life cycle, or physiology has been altered as a result of their breeding and living conditions being under human control for multiple generations. ... Negatively stained flu virions. ... Tuberculous lungs show up on an X-ray image Tuberculosis is an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (miliary TB), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ...

• Peloponnesian War, 430 BCE. An unknown agent killed a quarter of the Athenian troops and a quarter of the population over four years. This disease fatally weakened the dominance of Athens, but the sheer virulence of the disease prevented its wider spread; i.e. it killed off its hosts at a rate faster than they could spread it.

• Antonine Plague, 165-180. Possibly smallpox brought back from the Near East; killed a quarter of those infected and up to five million in all. At the height of a second outbreak (251-266) 5,000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome.

• Plague of Justinian, started 541. The first recorded outbreak of the bubonic plague. It started in Egypt and reached Constantinople the following spring, killing (according to the Byzantine chronicler Procopius) 10,000 a day at its height and perhaps 40 per cent of the city's inhabitants. It went on to destroy up to a quarter of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean.

• The Black Death, started 1300s. Eight hundred years after the last outbreak, the bubonic plague returned to Europe. Starting in Asia, the disease reached Mediterranean and western Europe in 1348 (possibly from Italian merchants fleeing fighting in the Crimea), and killed twenty million Europeans in six years, a quarter of the total population and up to a half in the worst-affected urban areas.

• Cholera
  • first pandemic 1816-1826. Previously restricted to the Indian subcontinent, the pandemic began in Bengal, then spread across India by 1820. It extended as far as China and the Caspian Sea before receding.
  • The second pandemic (1829-1851) reached Europe, London in 1832, New York in the same year, and the Pacific coast of North America by 1834.
  • The third pandemic (1852-1860) mainly affected Russia, with over a million deaths.
  • The fourth pandemic (1863-1875) spread mostly in Europe and Africa.
  • The sixth pandemic (1899-1923) had little effect in Europe because of advances in public health, but Russia was badly affected again.
  • The seventh pandemic began in Indonesia in 1961, called El Tor after the strain, and reached Bangladesh in 1963, India in 1964, and the USSR in 1966.

• The "Spanish Flu", 1918-1919. Began in August 1918 in three disparate locations: Brest, Boston and Freetown. An unusually severe and deadly strain of influenza spread worldwide. The disease spread across the world, killing 25 million in the course of six months; some estimates put the total of those killed worldwide at over twice that number. An estimated 17 million died in India, 500,000 in the USA and 200,000 in the UK. It vanished within 18 months and the actual strain was never determined, though some recent attempts at reconstructing genes from the virus have been successful.

The epidemic disease of wartime was typhus, sometimes called "camp fever" because of its pattern of flaring up in times of strife. (It is also known as "gaol fever" and "ship fever", for its habits of spreading wildly in cramped quarters, such as jails and ships.) Emerging during the Crusades, it had its first impact in Europe in 1489 in Spain. During fighting between the Christian Spaniards and the Muslims in Granada, the Spanish lost 3,000 to war casualties and 20,000 to typhus. In 1528 the French lost 18,000 troops in Italy and lost supremacy in Italy to the Spanish. In 1542, 30,000 people died of typhus while fighting the Ottomans in the Balkans. The disease also played a major role in the destruction of Napoleon's grande armée in Russia in 1811. Typhus also killed numerous prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Map of the Greek world at the start of the Peloponnesian War Temple of Apollo at Corinth The Peloponnesian War began in 431 BC between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League which included Sparta and Corinth. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC - 430s BC - 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC Years: 435 BC 434 BC 433 BC 432 BC 431 BC - 430 BC - 429 BC 428 BC... ... The Antonine Plague AD 165-180, also known as the Plague of Galen, was an ancient pandemic, either of smallpox or measles brought back to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. ... Events A pandemic breaks out in Rome after the Roman army returns from Parthia. ... For other uses, see number 180. ... Location within Italy The Roman Colosseum Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is the capital city of Italy and of its Latium region. ... The Plague of Justinian is the first known pandemic on record, and it also marks the first recorded case of bubonic plague. ... Events January 1 - Flavius Basilius Junior appointed as consul in Constantinople, the last person to hold this office January 2 - Earthquake strikes Laodicea. ... Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. ... Map of Constantinople. ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411). ... Centuries: 13th century - 14th century - 15th century Decades: 1250s 1260s 1270s 1280s 1290s - 1300s - 1310s 1320s 1330s 1340s 1350s Years: 1300 1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 Events and Trends MARF Categories: 1300s ... Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... World map showing location of Asia A satellite composite image of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ... The Crimea (officially Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukrainian transliteration: Avtonomna Respublika Krym, Ukrainian: Автономна Республіка Крим, Russian: Автономная Республика Крым, pronounced cry-MEE-ah in English) is a peninsula and an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea. ... distribution of cholera Cholera (also called Asiatic cholera) is an infectious disease of the gastrointestinal tract caused by the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. ... 1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1826 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A database query syntax error has occurred. ... Caspian Sea viewed from orbit The Caspian Sea or Mazandaran Sea is a landlocked sea between Asia and Europe (European Russia). ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which contains Big Ben London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... El Tor is the name given to a particular strain of Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. ... The Spanish Flu Pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza Pandemic, the 1918 Flu Epidemic, and La Grippe, was an unusually severe and deadly strain of influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 25 million to 40 million people (possibly significantly more) world-wide in 1918 and 1919. ... Location within France Brest, at the tip of Brittany Brest (population of the city: 146,000 inhabitants as of 2004 estimates; population of the metropolitan area: 303,484 inhabitants as of 1999 census) is a city in the Bretagne région, north-west France, subprefecture of the Finistère d... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... For other cities of the same name, see Freetown (disambiguation). ... Negatively stained flu virions. ... This is about the disease Typhus. ... This article is about historical Crusades . ... The City of Granada Alhambra, Courtyard of the Lions Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in Spain. ... The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Imperial motto El Muzaffer Daima The Ever Victorious (as written in tugra) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul (Constantinople/Asitane/Konstantiniyye ) Sovereigns Sultans of the Osmanli Dynasty Population ca 40 million Area 6. ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... A concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ...

Encounters between European explorers and populations in the rest of the world often introduced local epidemics of extraordinary virulence. Disease killed the entire native (Guanches) population of the Canary Islands in the 16th century. Half the native population of Hispaniola in 1518 was killed by smallpox. Smallpox also ravaged Mexico in the 1520s, killing 150,000 in Tenochtitlán alone, including the emperor, and Peru in the 1530s, aiding the European conquerors. Measles killed a further two million Mexican natives in the 1600s. As late as 1848-49, as many as 40,000 out of 150,000 Hawaiians are estimated to have died of measles, whooping cough and influenza. Canaries Capitals Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Santa Cruz de Tenerife Area  – Total  – % of Spain Ranked 13th  7 447 km²  1,5% Population  – Total (2003)  – % of Spain  – Density Ranked 8th  1 843 755  4,4%  247,58/km² Demonym  – English  – Spanish  Canary Islander  canario/a Statute of Autonomy August 16... Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-largest island of the Antilles, lying east of Cuba. ... Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) is a highly contagious disease unique to humans. ... Plan of Tenochtitlan ( Dr Atl) Mexico City statue commemorating the foundation of Tenochtitlan Tenochtitlan (pronounced ) or, alternatively, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was the capital of the Aztec empire, which was built on an island in Lake Texcoco in what is now central Mexico. ... State nickname: The Aloha State Other U.S. States Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Governor Linda Lingle Official languages Hawaiian and English Area 28,337 km² (43rd)  - Land 16,649 km²  - Water 11,672 km² (41. ... Negatively stained flu virions. ...

There are also a number of unknown diseases that were extremely serious but have now vanished, so the etiology of these diseases cannot be established. Examples include the previously mentioned plague in 430 BCE Greece and the English Sweat in 16th-century England, which struck people down in an instant and was more greatly feared even than the bubonic plague. Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC - 430s BC - 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC Years: 435 BC 434 BC 433 BC 432 BC 431 BC - 430 BC - 429 BC 428 BC... Sweating sickness was an unusual illness which was extremely virulent for about a century, confined mainly to England, and then seemed to vanish. ... Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. ...

Concern about possible future pandemics

Diseases that may possibly attain pandemic proportions include Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus and Bolivian haemorrhagic fever. As of 2002, however, the recent emergence of these diseases into the human population has shown their virulence is high, such that they tend to 'burn out' in geographically confined areas or that their effect on humans is currently limited. Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever first described in 1969 in the Nigerian town of Lassa in the Yedseram River valley. ... Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a viral zoonosis (affects primarily domestic livestock, but can be passed to humans) causing fever. ... The Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg hemorrhagic fever. ... Species Ivory Coast ebolavirus Reston ebolavirus Sudan ebolavirus Zaire virus Ebola hæmorrhagic fever (EHF — alternatively Ebola hemorrhagic fever; commonly referred to as simply Ebola) is a recently identified, severe, often fatal infectious disease occurring in humans and some primates caused by the Ebola virus. ... Bolivian Haemorrhagic Fever (Malpucho) is more commonly known as Black Typhus. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - can be considered a global pandemic but it is currently most extensive in southern and eastern Africa. It is restricted to a small proportion of the population in other countries, and is only spreading slowly in those countries. If there was to be a true destruction-of-life pandemic it would be likely to be similar to HIV, i.e. a constantly evolving disease. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a retrovirus that infects cells of the human immune system. ... AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, sometimes written Aids) is a human disease characterized by weakening of the bodys immune system and capacity to fight infection and certain cancers. ...

Antibiotic-resistant superbugs may also revive diseases previously regarded as 'conquered'. Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. ...

In 2003, there were concerns that SARS, a new highly contagious form of pneumonia, might have become pandemic. 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is an atypical form of pneumonia. ... Pneumonia (the ancient Greek word for lungs) is defined as an inflamation, usually caused by infection, involving the alveoli of the lungs. ...

In February 2004, avian influenza virus was detected in pigs in Vietnam, increasing fears of the emergence of new variant strains. It is feared that if the avian influenza virus undergoes antigenic shift with a human influenza virus, the new subtype created could be both highly contagious and highly lethal in humans. Such a subtype could cause a global influenza pandemic, similar to the Spanish Flu, or the lower mortality pandemics the Asian Flu and the Hong Kong Flu. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Avian influenza (also known as bird flu) is a type of influenza virulent in birds. ... Antigenic shift is the process by which two different strains of influenza combine to form a new subtype which is characterized by a mixture of the surface antigens of the two original strains. ... The Spanish Flu Pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza Pandemic, the 1918 Flu Epidemic, and La Grippe, was an unusually severe and deadly strain of influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 25 million to 40 million people (possibly significantly more) world-wide in 1918 and 1919. ... The Asian Flu was a pandemic outbreak of influenza that originated in China in 1957 and spread worldwide (including to the United States of America) that same year. ... The Hong Kong Flu was a pandemic outbreak of influenza that began in Hong Kong in 1968 and spread to the United States of America that year. ...

In November 2004 the director for the western region of the World Health Organization said that an influenza pandemic was inevitable and called for urgent plans to combat the virus. (Reuters)  (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=753&e=2&u=/nm/20041126/sc_nm/birdflu_dc) For other meanings of the acronym WHO, see WHO (disambiguation) WHO flag Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations, acting as a coordinating authority on international public health. ... Negatively stained flu virions. ...

In May 2005, scientists urgently call nations to prepare for a global flu pandemic that could strike as many as 20% of the world's population. [1] (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050526/ts_usatoday/flupandemicwarningsescalate)

See also

• Endemic
• Epidemic
• List of epidemics