Epidemics and pandemics

From My Research Wiki

It is difficult to understand what challenges our ancestors faced to just survive. The amount our ancestors did not know did literally kill many. Plagues and other diseases have been with the human race from the beginning but as travel, with ships and later airplanes, became more available (and faster) these diseases were able to spread much more quickly. Other crisis, such as war and crop failure (resulting in famine) also had a huge impact on our ancestors.

Period	Location	Disease	Comments
1332	India	Bubonic plague	Bubonic plague was first reported in India but moved along the trade routes into Europe with devastating results.
1346-1348	India	Bubonic plague	The disease left India along the trade routes.
1346-1348	Middle East	Bubonic plague
1346-1348	Southern Europe	Bubonic plague	Armies also used the "black plague" as an early form of germ warfare, spreading the disease even further (not only in this region).
1346-1348	North Africa	Bubonic plague	Ships moved the disease from region to region quickly.
1348-1350	Europe; Marseille France; Tunis North Africa	Bubonic plague	Nearly 30% of the population of Europe succumbed in the first two years.
1349	Norway, Scotland, Prussia, Iceland, and Italy	Bubonic plague	The disease started a second round back in Italy
1351	Russia	Bubonic plague
1485	England	The "Sweat"	Transported from Rouen by mercenaries recruited to help establish Henry Tudor. Also called The Swat, New Acquaintance, Stoupe, or "Knave know they master".
1508	England	The Sweat	A fast acting disease that many claimed "they were dancing in court at nine and dead at eleven." An apparently virile 24 hour disease.
1517	England	The Sweat
1518-1520	Aztec Empire (Mexico)	Smallpox	Brought to the New World with the Spanish, it aided the conquest since the Aztecs did not have any immunity. Over 25% of the population died.
1527-1530	Inca Empire (Peru, Ecuador, Chile)	Smallpox	Like the Aztecs, the Incan Empire was greatly weakened by European diseases.
1539-1540	England	Bubonic plague	Loughborough England has been cited as an example of the many plague outbreaks throughout this time period.
1550-1566	England	Bubonic plague	The population of England may have fallen as much as 6% between 1550 and 1560 due, primarily, to the plague.
1551	England	The Sweat
1577	England (Oxford)	"Goal Fever"
1581	England (York)	"Goal Fever"
1590	England (Lincoln)	"Goal Fever"
1615	England, Europe	"Hot Auge" (fever)
1615	England	A "burning fever"	Little is known of this disease except that it coincided with an outbreak of Hot Ague (fever) elsewhere in England and Europe.
1633-1634	New England	Smallpox	American Indian population is hard hit. Plymouth Massacusetts and the Connecticut River Valley, in particular, were very hard hit.
1634-1635	England	Smallpox
1636	Lake Ontario region	Smallpox	This epidemic spread from New England.
1636	England (Hereford)	"Goal Fever"
1638	England	an unidentified fever
1649	New England, Boston	Smallpox	Boston especially hard hit.
1657	Boston	Measles
1660-1661	England	an unidentified fever
1666	England (London)	Bubonic plague	Last 'great' outbreak.
1666	New England	Smallpox
1678	New England	Smallpox
1679	Iroquois nation	Smallpox
1687	Boston	Measles
1690	New York (city)	Yellow Fever
1711	Northern Europe	Plague	Source: World Almanac (1994)
1713	Boston	Measles
1721	Boston	Smallpox	Most of the population fled the city during this very severe outbreak, spreading the disease to other areas of New England and other colonies.
1721	New England	Smallpox	Most of the population fled Boston during this very severe outbreak, spreading the disease to other areas.
1722	Boston	Smallpox	Cotton Mather used a procedure described by his slave, Onesimus, to help reduce the impact of smallpox. He deliberately rubbed the pus from an infected person into a cut of a non-infected person. Only 2% of the 300 people that choose this form of inoculation died when the disease hit Boston in 1722.
1729	Boston	Measles
1732-1733	World-wide	Influenza
1738	South Carolina	Smallpox
1739-1740	Boston	Measles
1747	Connecticut	Measles
1747	New York	Measles
1747	Pennsylvania	Measles
1747	South Carolina	Measles
1759	North American (English) colonies	Measles	Mostly areas inhabited by white people.
1761	North American (English) colonies	Influenza
1761	West Indies (Caribbean)	Influenza
1769	Massachusetts	Diphtheria	Martha Ballard's Diary
1772	North American (English) colonies	Measles
1775	Boston	Smallpox	Broke out during the siege of the city.
1775	Quebec	Smallpox	During invasion of that English colony by the Continental Army.
1775	North American (English) colonies	unknown	New England especially hard hit.
1775-1776	World-wife	Influenza	One of the worst flu epidemics.
1778-1779	New Orleans	Smallpox
1779	Mexico	Smallpox
1780	New Mexico	Smallpox	Swept through the Pueblos.
1782	Interior trading posts of Hudson Bay Company	Smallpox
1783	Delaware (Dover)	Bilious Disorder	Extremely fatal
1787	Maine	Scarlet Fever	Martha Ballard's Diary
1788	Philadelphia	Measles
1788	New York (city)	Measles
1793	Vermont	Influenza and a "putrid fever"
1793	Virginia	Influenza	Killed 500 people in 5 counties in 4 weeks.
1793	Philadelphia	Yellow Fever	Over 4,000 dead
1793	Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Middletown)	unknown	Many unexplained deaths
1794	Philadelphia	Yellow Fever
1796			First successful smallpox vaccination by Edward Jenner on May 14
1796-1797	Philadelphia	Yellow Fever
1798	Philadelphia	Yellow Fever	One of the worst outbreaks of yellow fever.
1800			First smallpox vaccination in North America on June 2
1803	New York (city)	Yellow Fever
1813-1814	Central Europe	Typhoid Fever	Over 200,000 dead.
1817	India	Cholera	Starting in Calcutta, cholera quickly spread to other areas of India, and to other parts of the world. People in Iran and southern Russia, for example, became ill as traders brought the disease with them.
1820-1823	United States	unnamed "fever"	Starts on the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania and spreads across the nation.
1831	England (Sunderland)	Cholera	First recognized case of the 1831-32 epidemic that spread throughout the world by immigrants and trade ships. Started October 26.
1831-1832	Europe	Asiatic Cholera
1831-1832	Canada	Asiatic Cholera	Brought by English immigrants
1831-1832	United States	Asiatic Cholera	Brought by English immigrants
1832	New York (city), other major cities	Cholera	Over 3,000 dead in New York City from July to August! In October over 4,000 died in New Orleans!
1832	France (Paris)	Cholera
1833	Columbus, Ohio	Cholera
1834	New York (city)	Cholera
1837	Philadelphia	Typhus
1841	United States	Yellow Fever	Especially sever in southern states
1847	New Orleans	Yellow Fever
1847-1848	World-wife	Influenza
1848-1849	North America	Cholera
1849	New York (city)	Cholera	Over 4,000 dead
1850	United States	Yellow Fever
1850-1851	North America	Influenza
1851	Coles County, Illinois	Cholera
1851	North American great plains	Cholera
1851	Missouri	Cholera
1852-1853	United States	Yellow Fever	Nearly 8,000 die in New Orleans during the summer.
1854	Corpus Christi, Texas	Yellow Fever
1854	England	Cholera	Second great outbreak of this disease. Dr. John Snow used this outbreak to chart the disease to water polluted with sewage.
1854-1860	Chicago	Dysentery	1,600 died
1855	United States	Yellow Fever
1857-1859	World-wide	Influenza	One of the greatest outbreaks of this disease.
1858-1863	Chicago	Scarlet Fever	1,200 died
1860-1861	Pennsylvania	Smallpox
1862-1863	Southern California	Smallpox	Many North American Indians and Mexicans died.
1864	Chicago	Smallpox	283 died
1865-1873	Philadelphia	A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever
1865-1873	New York (city)	A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever
1865-1873	Boston	A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever
1865-1873	New Orleans, Louisiana	A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever
1865-1873	Baltimore, Maryland	A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever
1865-1873	Washington, D.C.	A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever
1865-1873	Memphis, Tennessee	A series of recurring epidemics of Smallpox, Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Scarlet Fever and Yellow Fever
1873	Chicago	Cholera	116 died
1867	New Orleans, Louisiana	Yellow Fever	Over 3,000 dead
1867	Corpus Christi, Texas	Yellow Fever
1867	Galveston, Texas	Yellow Fever
1867	Indianola	Yellow Fever
1873	Alabama	Cholera	Moved along the railroad lines from Huntsville to Birmingham and Montgomery as these cities industrialized.
1873-1875	North America	Influenza
1873-1875	Europe	Influenza
1878	New Orleans, Louisiana	Yellow Fever	Last great outbreak of this disease; over 13,000 died in the Mississippi Valley alone
1878 (Spring)	Northern New Jersey	Diphtheria
1878	Alabama	Yellow Fever
1885	Plymouth	Typhoid
1886	Jacksonville, Florida	Yellow Fever
1891	Chicago	Bronchitis and Pneumonia	4,300 died
1891	Chicago	Typhoid Fever	2,000 died
1895	Washington, D.C.	Malaria
1898	Cuba	Yellow Fever	Spanish-American War; the disease took over 5,000 soldiers (only 968 died in combat!) in just July & August
1899-1901	South Africa	Typhoid Fever	As many as 43,000 British troops contracted typhoid during the Boer War even though doctors knew it was a waterborne disease.
1903	Ithaca, New York	Typhoid Fever	Typhoid Mary Maflon infected 53 (officially) but the final number may have been over 1,400. She showed that a person could carry a disease without exhibiting any symptoms.
1916	United States	Polio (infantile paralysis)	Over 7,000 deaths and more than 27,000 cases reported in worst polio epidemic in U.S.
1918	World-wide	Spanish Influenza	1918 was the high point year. More people hospitalized in WWI from Influenza than wounds. US Army training camps became death camps with 80% death rate in some camps.
1941	Australia	Rubella (German Measles)	This disease was once considered one of the least troublesome childhood diseases.
1952	United States	Polio (infantile paralysis)	3,300 dead and over 57,000 cases reported
1962-1965	World-wide	Rubella (German Measles)	Affected as many as 12.5 million causing deafness, blindness; approximately 30,000 babies in U.S. alone due to maternal rubella.
1981-present	World-wide	HIV/AIDS	This pandemic is now known to have "jumped" from monkeys to humans several times before but died out in the local population. This time, however, transportation helped the disease to spread. The starting year is estimated in the 1930s but this is the time when the disease began to gain recognition.
1989-1991	United States	Measles	Started in Maryland but spread quickly
2002-2003	China, World-wide	SARS