deepstash
Beta
Deepstash brings you key ideas from the most inspiring articles like this one:
Read more efficiently
Save what inspires you
Remember anything
A visual history of pandemics
2
Key Ideas
Save all ideas
A History Of Pandemics
- A Pandemic is defined as the proliferation of a disease over the whole country or the entire world.
- Diseases and illnesses have troubled humanity since the earliest days, but can now occur with increased frequency due to rapid urbanization and globalism. The death toll numbers in Pandemics over the ages are estimates based on available research, and may not be accurate.
- Earlier it was believed that Pandemics are God’s punishment on humans, but now, as our understanding has increased, the response to these outbreaks has improved.
74 SAVES
134 READS
Quarantined
- The original use of the word Quarantine was the act of anchoring a ship arrived in Venice, Italy, for 40 days before landing.
- Infectiousness of any disease is measured by the reproduction number (R0, or R naught). For example, Smallpox has an R0 of 6 whereas Measles has an R0 of 16.
- Vaccination, if available, and herd immunity can curb the spread of disease.
- Big cities, with exploding population and traffic, can lead to the rapid spread of any infectious disease.
71 SAVES
102 READS
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
18
Key Ideas
Spreading of diseases
Transmissible diseases existed during humankind’s hunter-gatherer days, but the shift to agrarian life 10,000 years ago created communities that made epidemics more possible.
We started build...
430 B.C.: Plague of Athens
The earliest recorded pandemic happened during the Peloponnesian War. It passed through Libya, Ethiopia, and Egypt, and it reached Athens as the Spartans laid siege. Two-thirds of the population died.
The disease, suspected to have been typhoid fever, weakened the Athenians significantly and played a big role in their defeat by the Spartans.
165 A.D.: The Antonine Plague
It may have been an early appearance of smallpox that began with the Huns.
The Huns then infected the Germans, who passed it to the Romans and then returning troops spread it throughout the Roman empire. This plague continued until about 180 A.D., claiming Emperor Marcus Aurelius as one of its victims.
10
Key Ideas
The Third Cholera Pandemic (1852-1860)
Cholera is a bacterial infection and is mainly contracted through food and water.
The largest cholera outbreak originated in India and spread beyond its borders, killing about 23 000 people ...
The Asian Flu Pandemic (1957)
The Asian Flu Pandemic was an outbreak of avian influenza that started in China and spread worldwide.
The estimated death rate was one to two million people.
Typhus fever in World War 1 (1945)
Typhus fever is spread by lice. The war brought on poor sanitation that probably led to a higher density of lice and made the transmission more prevalent.
Typhus fever caused three million deaths in Russia alone.
3
Key Ideas
The habit of shaking hands
Taking into account the current situation created by the new virus, disease experts state that we should all consider removing handshakes from our habits from now on, as they could only increase th...
Giving up on handshakes
While shaking hands reveals the need to connect with the other and be socially engaged, several disease experts are encouraging us to find a substitute that would endanger less our health throughout periods of pandemics and not only. For instance, greetings such as simply stating how much of a pleasure it is to meet a person could actually do the trick.
Adapting our social habits
While disease experts support the idea of removing the handshakes from our cultural customs, several University professors claim that individuals are surely able to adept their customs, even if these have been practiced for generations to come. Therefore, giving up or just adjusting the handshake, should be no major issue for our civilization.