Fortunately, the coronavirus infection of a new type of COVID-19 is very far from those deadly pandemics that in the past claimed millions of human lives, and sometimes even brought the entire population of people on the planet to the brink of survival. Sometimes the duration of such pandemics was only a few years, sometimes they stretched for centuries, and some continue to this day.
Malaria
Malaria is an infectious disease transmitted to humans through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes (“malaria mosquitoes”). Malaria is also transmitted through blood, from person to person (one example is transmission to a child while still in the womb). The course of the disease can be both mild and severe, leading to death, but it is necessarily characterized by fever, sweating, muscle pain and headaches. The mosquito-borne malaria parasite is believed to have originated 600 million years ago. Therefore, our most ancient ancestors suffered from malaria, and this disease often put humanity on the brink of extinction. In 2000 alone, between 350 and 500 million cases of malaria were recorded, of which up to three million were fatal. Even today, every 30 seconds in the world, someone dies from malaria, mainly in the tropics and subtropics. The first clinically successful malaria vaccine was not created until 2017.
Typhus
Typhus is an infectious disease caused by bacteria, which is accompanied by a specific rash, fever, damage to the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Scientists believe that the first epidemic of typhus imported from Egypt and Ethiopia was described by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides: it broke out in Athens in 40 BC. Subsequently, the disease became widespread in Europe, and later spread to the territory of our country and the New World. The numerous epidemics of typhus in the past centuries have always accompanied wars, natural disasters, hunger, devastation, and social upheaval. In Mexico in 1576 – 1577, typhus killed more than 2 million Indians. In post-revolutionary Russia, between 1917 and 1921, typhus killed about 3 million people.
Cholera
Cholera is a particularly dangerous acute intestinal infection with high mortality that occurs when a person is affected by cholera vibrio. The disease is manifested by severe frequent diarrhea, profuse repeated vomiting, which leads to significant loss of fluid and dehydration. Cholera periodically spread from the Ganges valley in India, where the disease has been well known since ancient times, to many countries of the world and entire continents (mainly in Africa and southern Asia). Since 1817, a wave of continuous cholera pandemics begins, which carried away in the 19th century