The history of mankind is marked by diseases that affected societies at different times and left deep marks on them because of the number of dead. The spread of many diseases was a catalyst for significant transformations and encouraged scientific development with the aim of combating them and ensuring human survival.
Examples abound, and diseases such as smallpox, measles , typhus, typhoid fever, yellow fever, cholera, AIDS, Ebola, bubonic plague and different types of flu are some of those that have marked human development in society. In this text we will address five examples of diseases that hit us (and still hit) us brutally.
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Smallpox
Smallpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus and known to cause small lesions on the patient's skin. The disease is transmitted by the secretions of the infected person. Sharing objects and contact with the crusts that the disease causes on the patient's skin also allow its transmission.
Smallpox is one of the most epidemic-causing diseases and was even responsible for a pandemic that spread across the Roman Empire in the 2nd century AD. The disease is believed to have emerged in India during antiquity, spreading across the world and wreaking havoc wherever it went.
A first example we can provide is the aforementioned pandemic in the Roman Empire from 165. This outbreak began in Roman troops who were installed in Parthia, a Roman territory located in Mesopotamia. By these troops, the disease gained Roman territory and arrived in Rome in 166.
It became known as Antonine Plague and even caused thedeath of about two thousand people a day in Rome , as reported in 189|1| . It is believed to have been an outbreak of smallpox because a Greek doctor left reports in which the symptoms match those of this disease. five million people are believed to have died as a consequence of the Antonine plague.
A second example of smallpox action occurred in Japan, between 735 and 737. The smallpox epidemic in 8th century Japan began on Kyushu, the third largest island in the world. country, located south of Honshu, the main island. The disease is believed to have been carried from Kyushu to Honshu by a Japanese expedition returning from China. It is considered that 1/3 of the Japanese population died disease victim|2| .
Iceland, an island located in the North Atlantic, also suffered from a smallpox epidemic. This epidemic took place between 1707 and 1709 and was responsible for the death of 25% of the Icelandic population|3| . The disease is believed to have reached Iceland through the possessions of an Icelander who died of the disease on his way back from a trip to Denmark.
Here in Brazil, the first record of this disease dates back to 1563, when an epidemic outbreak emerged on the island of Itaparica, reaching Salvador. Smallpox had a very high mortality rate among indigenous people, affecting them both here in Brazil and elsewhere on the American continent.
Bubonic Plague
Bubonic plague is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis , which is found in mice and is transmitted to humans when their skin is bitten by the fleas that were on these infected animals. Once a human has contracted the disease, he can transmit it through his secretions.
The greatest example of the bubonic plague was the pandemic that hit Europe, North Africa and part of Asia during the 14th century. Among Europeans, the disease was calledBlack Death , being responsible for the death of about 50 million people between 1347 and 1353. The scale of the Black Death made it a catalyst for profound transformations in medieval Europe.
This disease is believed to have originated somewhere in Central Asia, and the 14th century pandemic was not the first example of an outbreak of it. In the Bible , for example, in the 'Book of Samuel', there is talk of a disease caused by rats that ravaged the Philistines. Experts believe it was the bubonic plague.
Also, there was an outbreak of bubonic plague among the Byzantines between 541 and 544. It is believed that the plague justiniana , as it became known, arose in the region of the Nile delta, spreading through the Byzantine territory from 541. Scholars on the subject say that in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, the peak of the disease may have caused 10 thousand deaths per day|4| .
In the 14th century, the disease returned to the European continent, being brought by Genoese fleeing Caffa, a Genoa colony in Crimea. The city had been surrounded by Tatar troops who were succumbing to an outbreak of the plague. Caffa was contaminated, and the Genoese took the disease to places like Sicily, Marseille and Genoa. From there it spread, by land, across the European continent.
The Black Death caused significant transformations social, political and economic aspects in Europe. Bonds of serfdom weakened, wages rose, and commerce changed. Cities collapsed in the face of chaos for lack of rulers. In the popular imagination, ideas about human fragility and the triumph of death were consolidated. This imagery gave rise to a series of representations known as the Dance of Death.
Other outbreaks of bubonic plague occurred in Europe in the following centuries. The English capital, London , suffered one of them between 1665 and 1666, and it is estimated that up to 100 thousand people (out of a total of 420 thousand inhabitants) may have died of the disease|5| . Another example was in Marseille , where a ship from Syria brought the plague to France in 1720, with the result that the disease killed 40,000 people (out of a total of 90 thousand inhabitants)|6| .
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Spanish flu
The Spanish flu was what a became known as virus mutation influenza which appeared in 1918 and wreaked havoc until mid-1919. The disease had symptoms identical to those of a common flu, such as cough, runny nose, fever and headaches. In the most severe cases, it resulted in complications such as different types of pneumonia.
Historians do not know how to trace the precise place where the disease originated, but it is believed to have been in the United States, then spread around the world by the troops of that country who were sent to the battlefields during World War I. The disease acted in three waves, the second being the most contagious and the one with the highest mortality rate.
The disease had a significant impact on the war , but its repercussion among the troops was muffled by the belligerent nations to prevent the morale of the combatants from falling. It is believed that in the German army, for example, 500,000 soldiers fell ill in June 1918|7| . The disease also affected enemy troops of the Germans, such as the French.
The disease became known by that name due to the repercussion made by the Spanish press about it, because, as the country was not fighting in the war, the news of the disease was reported to the world by Spanish journalists .
Medicine at the time did not know what caused the disease because there was not enough technology to observe the virus. The treatment was done only as a way to alleviate the symptoms, and the infections caused were not properly fought because there were no antibiotics at the beginning of the 20th century.
Here in Brazil, the disease arrived in September 1918 , during its second wave, and affected all regions of the country. The two most affected places were São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two largest cities in the country at the beginning of the century. In all, the Spanish flu caused the official death of 35,000 Brazilians , among them Rodrigues Alves, winner of the 1918 presidential election. Altogether, the flu was responsible for the death of , by less , 50 million people in the world.
Aids
Starting in 1981, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) began to record a increase in rare disease cases and identified that many previously healthy men developed pneumonia and cancer. Medical studies soon identified that in these patients the immune system was severely weakened.
The research developed to unravel what was behind these cases characterized them, in 1982, as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS). The following year, it became known that the cause of the disease was the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
The 1980s were marked by the beginning of what is now considered a pandemic. AIDS cases have multiplied across the United States and the world, causing 75 million people to have been infected with this disease until 2018. Of this total, about 32 million died|8| . Here in Brazil, an estimated 900,000 people have contracted AIDS.
AIDS is a disease transmitted through body fluids such as blood and semen. Thus, it can be transmitted through sharing needles, blood transfusions, unprotected sexual intercourse and pregnant mothers with HIV, who can pass the disease to their children.
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Ebola
Another recently discovered disease that had a major impact on the places where it manifested itself was Ebola. The disease caused by the Ebola virus was first identified in Sudan and in Democratic Republic of Congo , two countries located on the African continent. Scientists say that the carrier of the Ebola virus may be a bat that transmits it to other animals.
Humans contract the disease when handling the corpses of infected animals. From there, transmission from one human to another can occur through body fluids such as saliva, sweat, breast milk, and blood. Therefore, it is a highly contagious disease. and which has already caused significant epidemic outbreaks on the African continent.
The most serious case happened between 2013 and 2016, in West Africa region , operating mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. In this epidemic outbreak, it is estimated that almost 29,000 people were infected , of which over 11,000 died . Currently, there is an epidemic outbreak happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo that already has more than 2200 dead.
Ebola is considered a serious illness and causes symptoms such as high fever, body aches, vomiting and bleeding. There is no treatment and cure for it, and it is a disease with a high mortality rate. Doctors also speak of severe sequelae that she leaves in those who recover. Among these sequelae are:joint pain and even vision and hearing problems.
Notes
|1| HAYS, J. N. Epidemics and pandemics . Their impacts on human history. Austin, Texas:Kahle Foundation, 2005. p. 18.
|2| Ditto, p. 31.
|3| Ditto, p. 131.
|4| Ditto, p. 23.
|5| Ditto, p. 119.
|6| Ditto, p. 137.
|7| Ditto, p. 386.
|8| Statistics – Unaids Brazil. To access, click here.
Image credits
[1] Sergey Uryadnikov and Shutterstock