TRIVIA: Pandemics in History and How They Ended
The world is in the thick of a pandemic right now. And it is undeniably a tough time for everyone. But, people from different periods of history have repeatedly proven that the human spirit is indeed unbreakable and relentless, as they have battled through different health crises in the past.
So, if you're curious about how other pandemics in the past played out, here's something to learn from. Below are some of the diseases that have wreaked havoc worldwide during different periods, and how they finally ended.
Leprosy/Hansen's Disease
Hansen's Disease, more commonly known as Leprosy, is an infectious disease that has existed for centuries. It is caused by Mycobacterium leprae and what people mostly feared about it is one of its irreversible symptoms, tissue necrosis, wherein parts or entire limbs die off and turn black.
It was often misunderstood as a hereditary disease or even as a punishment from God. In old times, leprosy patients where stigmatized and ostracized by their communities and families. They were even made to wear special clothing and ring bells to warn others when they were coming.
The first breakthrough in the treatment of Leprosy came in the 1940s when the medicine dapsone was developed. However, treatment with dapsone lasted for many years - sometimes even a lifetime--thus, making it difficult for leprosy patients to comply with. Moreover, the Mycobacterium leprae had eventually developed a resistance to dapsone, the only known anti-leprosy medicine at that time.
A ray of hope emerged in the early 1960s when two other medicines were discovered: rifampicin and clofazimine. In 1981, the World Health Organization had recommended multidrug therapy or MDT as the ultimate treatment for leprosy. MDT regimen was a combination of dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the treatment lasts for six months for paucibacillary and 12 months for multi-bacillary cases.
The Black Death/Bubonic Plague
The Bubonic Plague or Black Death is considered as one of the worst pandemics in history. It reportedly killed one-third of Europe's population in the 14th century.
Black Death was coined from the black spots on the skin of the sailors who brought with them the disease when they docked in a Sicilian port, after traveling the Silk Road.
It was during the time of the Bubonic plague that the practice of forced isolation or quarantine was born. Sailors were ordered to stay on their docked ships for 40 days after their arrival.
The multi-century pandemic was believed to have originated in China in 1334 and has claimed the lives of approximately 25 million people in Europe.
Throughout the centuries, several therapies have been developed to combat the Bubonic plague, from using antiserum in 1896 to currently using the newest antimicrobial drugs called fluoroquinolones like Ciprofloxacin. Thanks to scientists and doctors who toiled for centuries, the Bubonic plague is now curable.
If left untreated, the Bubonic plague can be highly fatal. So, early diagnosis and treatment are the keys to successfully cure it.
Cholera
Cholera originated from the Ganges Delta of Calcutta, India in 1817. There have been seven waves of the cholera pandemic, and the disease had reportedly killed millions of people across all continents.
Ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae is the main cause of cholera. It can kill an infected person within hours if left untreated, due to severe dehydration.
One of the breakthroughs in the fight against cholera was the discovery of physician and medical scientist John Snow. In 1854, he suspected that the Broad Street cholera outbreak in the Soho district of London was caused by exposure to contaminated water.
Based on the interviews that John Snow conducted, he was able to trace the source of the cholera outbreak: a single water pump. Although his theory was initially rejected, he was able to redeem himself when the cholera outbreak ended almost instantly after disabling the said water pump.
But, even though the cause of cholera has long been determined, it remains a threat to public health worldwide. According to WHO, there are 1.3 to 4 million cases of cholera reported yearly and deaths totaling to 21,000 to 143,000.
WHO recommends a multi-faceted approach in fighting cholera, which includes surveillance, water, sanitation and hygiene, social mobilization, treatment, and use of oral cholera vaccines.
Cholera can be easily treated with the prompt administration of oral rehydration solution or intravenous fluids. Antibiotics are also used to shorten the duration of diarrhea, and to diminish the amount and duration of V. cholerae excretion in the patient's stool.
1918 Flu Pandemic/Spanish Flu
The 1918 flu pandemic is considered as the most catastrophic pandemic in modern history. It infected around 500 million people or one-third of the Earth's population at that time. And it has killed approximately more than 50 million people, which greatly outnumbered the total death toll of the First World War that was around 17 million.
The 1918 flu didn't originate from Spain. The only reason it got its name 'Spanish flu' was that it was only when the flu pandemic reached Spain that the world learned about the disease. Spain was a neutral country during World War I and didn't have wartime censorship; unlike Allied countries France and the U.S.A., who was first hit hard by the disease but didn't report the health crisis to maintain the morale of their troops.
The Spanish flu is the first of the four influenza pandemics in the last decade; the others occurred in 1957, 1968, and 2009. It is also the first of two pandemics that were caused by the H1N1 influenza virus; the other one was the swine flu in 2009.
Usually, it's the elderly, infants, pregnant women, and immuno-compromised individuals who are at most risk to get infected and die from influenza. However, in the case of the Spanish flu, the average age of those who died was between 20 to 40 years old. The disease was so severe that infected people died within hours or days after first showing symptoms.
As to why this was the case, it is still unresolved up to this day and the 1918 flu pandemic seemed to have vanished suddenly by 1920, even before effective treatment was developed.
Lessons from the past
No two pandemics are the same. Their causes, duration, and treatment would greatly vary from one another. The fast-rising number of infections and deaths from the Coronavirus Disease or COVID-19 may be unsettling. But, despite the ongoing panic and fear, people can still take comfort in the fact that nothing lasts forever, as what history illustrates. Even a devastating pandemic will come to an end - or at least become curable.
So, for now, while experts in the field of medicine and science race against time to develop a cure and a vaccine against COVID-19, the rest of the world should unite in prayer and hope that this health crisis will soon end and that humanity will be able to come out of this stronger, wiser, and better.
SOURCES:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/leprosy
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/plague
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cholera
https://www.insider.com/disease-outbreaks-deadliest-history
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X14608582
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/the-plague/
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/plague-faq#1
https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2013/12/the_five_deadliesto.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera#History
https://www.who.int/influenza/spotlight
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H1N1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death_in_medieval_culture
RELATED CONTENT: