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78-522: The Patuxet were wiped out by a series of plagues that decimated the indigenous peoples of southeastern New England in the second decade of the 17th century. The epidemics which swept across New England and the Canadian Maritimes between 1614 and 1620 were especially devastating to the Wampanoag and neighboring Massachusett , with mortality reaching 100% in many mainland villages. When

156-472: A growing human population , are the primary drivers of this destruction. According to Peter Daszak , the chair of the group who produced the report, "there is no great mystery about the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic or any modern pandemic. The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment." Proposed policy options from

234-541: A zoonotic origin, having originated in nonhuman primates in Central Africa and transferred to humans in the early 20th century. The most frequent mode of transmission of HIV is through sexual contact with an infected person. There may be a short period of mild, nonspecific symptoms followed by an asymptomatic (but nevertheless infectious) stage called clinical latency - without treatment, this stage can last between 3 and 20 years. The only way to detect infection

312-542: A category of Public Health Emergency of International Concern , defined as " an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response ". There is a rigorous process underlying this categorization and a clearly defined trajectory of responses. A WHO-sponsored international body, tasked with preparing an international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response has defined

390-432: A cause of great concern to health professionals. Every year, nearly half a million new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are estimated to occur worldwide. China and India have the highest rate of MDR-TB. WHO reports that approximately 50 million people worldwide are infected with MDR-TB, with 79 percent of those cases resistant to three or more antibiotics. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis ( XDR-TB )

468-429: A common source exposure or an environmental vector may spread a zoonotic diseases agent. Preparations for an epidemic include having a disease surveillance system; the ability to quickly dispatch emergency workers, especially local-based emergency workers; and a legitimate way to guarantee the safety and health of health workers. Effective preparations for a response to a pandemic are multi-layered. The first layer

546-454: A death toll of 6.9 million. It is considered likely that the virus will eventually become endemic and, like the common cold, cause less severe disease for most people. HIV/AIDS was first identified as a disease in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. Since then, HIV/AIDS has killed an estimated 40 million people with a further 630,000 deaths annually; 39 million people are currently living with HIV infection. HIV has

624-595: A disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area." The term "outbreak" can also apply, but is usually restricted to smaller events. Any sudden increase in disease prevalence may generally be termed an epidemic. This may include contagious disease (i.e. easily spread between persons) such as influenza ; vector-borne diseases such as malaria ; water-borne diseases such as cholera ; and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS . The term can also be used for non-communicable health issues such as obesity . The term epidemic derives from

702-449: A disease epidemic. By the early 17th century, the terms endemic and epidemic referred to contrasting conditions of population-level disease, with the endemic condition a " common sicknesse " and the epidemic " hapning in some region, or countrey, at a certaine time, ....... producing in all sorts of people, one and the same kind of sicknesse ". The term "epidemic" is often applied to diseases in non-human animals, although " epizootic "

780-420: A disease which has caused epidemics in the past may return in the future. It is also possible that little known diseases may become more virulent; in order to encourage research, a number of organisations which monitor global health have drawn up lists of diseases which may have pandemic potential; see table below. Coronavirus diseases are a family of usually mild illnesses in humans, including those such as

858-462: A draft of this treaty to the 77th World Health Assembly during its 2024 convention. Further, on 6 May 2024, the White House released an official policy to more safely manage medical research projects involving potentially hazardous pathogens , including viruses and bacteria , that may pose a risk of a pandemic. A medical dictionary definition of pandemic is " an epidemic occurring on

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936-600: A fast-spreading pandemic may easily exceed and overwhelm existing health-care resources. Consequently, early and aggressive mitigation efforts, aimed at the so-called "epidemic curve flattening" need to be taken. Such measures usually consist on non-pharmacological interventions such as social/physical distancing, aggressive contact tracing, "stay-at-home" orders, as well as appropriate personal protective equipment (i.e., masks, gloves, and other physical barriers to spread). Moreover, India has taken significant strides in its efforts to prepare for future respiratory pandemics through

1014-511: A fever in November 1622. The first settlers of Plymouth Colony (modern Plymouth, Massachusetts ), sited their colony at the location of a former Patuxet village, named "Port St. Louis" ( Samuel de Champlain , 1605) or "Accomack" ( John Smith , 1614). By 1616, the site had been renamed "New Plimoth" in Smith's A Description of New England after a suggestion by Prince Charles of England. When

1092-478: A million fatalities, and the " Spanish flu " of 1918–1920 eventually infected about one-third of the world's population and caused an estimate 50   million fatalities. The Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System is a global network of laboratories that has for purpose to monitor the spread of influenza with the aim to provide WHO with influenza control information. More than two million respiratory specimens are tested by GISRS annually to monitor

1170-431: A novel influenza virus , WHO previously applied a six-stage classification to delineate the process by which the virus moves from the first few infections in humans through to a pandemic. Starting with phase 1 (infections identified in animals only), it moves through phases of increasing infection and spread to phase 6 (pandemic). In February 2020, a WHO spokesperson clarified that the system is no longer in use. In 2014,

1248-460: A number of ethical and political issues which must be considered during a pandemic. These included decisions about who should be prioritised for treatment while resources are scarce; whether or not to make vaccination compulsory; the timing and extent of constraints on individual liberty, how to sanction individuals who do not comply with emergency regulations, and the extent of international collaboration and resource sharing. The basic strategies in

1326-536: A number of pandemics of diseases such as smallpox . The Black Death , caused by the Plague , caused the deaths of up to half of the population of Europe in the 14th century. The term pandemic had not been used then, but was used for later epidemics, including the 1918 H1N1 influenza A pandemic—more commonly known as the Spanish flu —which is the deadliest pandemic in history . The most recent pandemics include

1404-423: A pandemic as " the global spread of a pathogen or variant that infects human populations with limited or no immunity through sustained and high transmissibility from person to person, overwhelming health systems with severe morbidity and high mortality, and causing social and economic disruptions, all of which require effective national and global collaboration and coordination for its control ". The word comes from

1482-847: A pandemic involves many countries so international cooperation, data sharing, and collaboration are essential; as is universal access to tests and therapies. Collaboration - In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO established a Pandemic Hub in September 2021 in Berlin, aiming to address weaknesses around the world in how countries detect, monitor and manage public health threats. The Hub's initiatives include using artificial intelligence to analyse more than 35,000 data feeds for indications of emerging health threats, as well as improving facilities and coordination between academic institutions and WHO member countries. Detection - In May 2023, WHO launched

1560-445: A period of time; an evolutionary change which increases survival time will result in increased virulence. Another possibility, although rare, is that a pathogen may adapt to take advantage of a new mode of transmission Seasonal diseases arise due to the change in the environmental conditions, especially such as humidity and temperature, during different seasons. Many diseases display seasonality , This may be due to one or more of

1638-530: A press conference on 28 December 2020, Mike Ryan, head of the WHO Emergencies Program, and other officials said the current COVID-19 pandemic is "not necessarily the big one" and "the next pandemic may be more severe." They called for preparation. WHO and the UN have warned the world must tackle the cause of pandemics and not just the health and economic symptoms. There is always a possibility that

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1716-561: A scale that crosses international boundaries, usually affecting people on a worldwide scale ". A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For instance, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic because the disease is not contagious —i.e. easily transmissible—and not even simply infectious . This definition differs from colloquial usage in that it encompasses outbreaks of relatively mild diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) has

1794-440: A sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected individuals such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide. Throughout human history , there have been

1872-489: A type of prevention strategy, holding back diseases such as influenza and polio which have caused pandemics in the past, and could do so again if not controlled. Prevention overlaps with preparedness which aims to curtail an outbreak and prevent it getting out of control - it involves strategic planning, data collection and modelling to measure the spread, stockpiling of therapies, vaccines, and medical equipment, as well as public health awareness campaigning. By definition,

1950-421: A very rare disease may be classified as an epidemic, while many cases of a common disease (such as the common cold ) would not. An epidemic can cause enormous damage through financial and economic losses in addition to impaired health and loss of life. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines epidemic broadly: "Epidemic refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of

2028-460: A word form attributed to Homer 's Odyssey , which later took its medical meaning from the Epidemics , a treatise by Hippocrates . Before Hippocrates, epidemios , epidemeo , epidamos , and other variants had meanings similar to the current definitions of " indigenous " or " endemic ". Thucydides ' description of the Plague of Athens is considered one of the earliest accounts of

2106-427: Is a disease surveillance system. Tanzania , for example, runs a national lab that runs testing for 200 health sites and tracks the spread of infectious diseases. The next layer is the actual response to an emergency. According to U.S.-based columnist Michael Gerson in 2015, only the U.S. military and NATO have the global capability to respond to such an emergency. Still, despite the most extensive preparatory measures,

2184-713: Is abrupt - in this, two or more different strains of a virus , coinfecting a single host, combine to form a new subtype having a mixture of characteristics of the original strains. The best known and best documented example of both processes is influenza . SARS-CoV2 has demonstrated antigenic drift and possibly shift as well. Antibiotic resistance applies specifically to bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics . Resistance in bacteria can arise naturally by genetic mutation , or by one species acquiring resistance from another through horizontal gene transfer . Extended use of antibiotics appears to encourage selection for mutations which can render antibiotics ineffective. This

2262-519: Is an incomplete list of known epidemics which spread widely enough to merit the title "pandemic". Beginning from the Middle Ages, encounters between European settlers and native populations in the rest of the world often introduced epidemics of extraordinary virulence. Settlers introduced novel diseases which were endemic in Europe, such as smallpox , measles , pertussis .and influenza , to which

2340-427: Is by means of a HIV test. There is no vaccine to prevent HIV infection, but the disease can be held in check by means of antiretroviral therapy . Historical accounts of epidemics are often vague or contradictory in describing how victims were affected. A rash accompanied by a fever might be smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, or varicella , and it is possible that epidemics overlapped, with multiple infections striking

2418-494: Is considered an epidemic. Epidemics of infectious disease are generally caused by several factors including a change in the ecology of the host population (e.g., increased stress or increase in the density of a vector species), a genetic change in the pathogen reservoir or the introduction of an emerging pathogen to a host population (by movement of pathogen or host). Generally, an epidemic occurs when host immunity to either an established pathogen or newly emerging novel pathogen

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2496-683: Is developing a program to condense new vaccine development timelines to 100 days, a third of the time it took to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. CEPI aims to reduce global epidemic and pandemic risk by developing vaccines against known pathogens as well as enabling rapid response to Disease X . In the US, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has developed a Pandemic Preparedness Plan which focuses on identifying viruses of concern and developing diagnostics and therapies (including prototype vaccines) to combat them. Modeling

2574-421: Is especially true of tuberculosis , with increasing occurrence of multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) worldwide. Pathogen transmission is a term used to describe the mechanisms by which a disease-causing agent (virus, bacterium, or parasite) spreads from one host to another. Common modes of transmission include: - The first three of these require that pathogen must survive away from its host for

2652-712: Is important to inform policy decisions. It helps to predict the burden of disease on healthcare facilities, the effectiveness of control measures, projected geographical spread, and timing and extent of future pandemic waves. Public Awareness involves disseminating reliable information, ensuring consistency on message, transparency, and steps to discredit misinformation . Stockpiling involves maintaining strategic stockpiles of emergency supplies such as personal protective equipment, drugs and vaccines, and equipment such as respirators. Many of these items have limited shelf life , so they require stock rotation even though they may be rarely used. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted

2730-399: Is no longer possible to contain the spread of the disease, management will then move on to the mitigation stage, in which measures are taken to slow the spread of the disease and mitigate its effects on society and the healthcare system. In reality, containment and mitigation measures may be undertaken simultaneously. A key part of managing an infectious disease outbreak is trying to decrease

2808-400: Is not immune. An example of this was the introduction European diseases such as smallpox into indigenous populations during the 16th century. A zoonosis is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen that can jump from a non-human host to a human. Major diseases such as Ebola virus disease and salmonellosis are zoonoses. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans in

2886-550: Is suddenly reduced below that found in the endemic equilibrium and the transmission threshold is exceeded. An epidemic may be restricted to one location; however, if it spreads to other countries or continents and affects a substantial number of people, it may be termed as a pandemic . The declaration of an epidemic usually requires a good understanding of a baseline rate of incidence ; epidemics for certain diseases, such as influenza , are defined as reaching some defined increase in incidence above this baseline. A few cases of

2964-417: Is technically preferable. There are several factors that may contribute (individually or in combination) to causing an epidemic. There may be changes in a pathogen , in the population that it can infect, in the environment, or in the interaction between all three. Factors include the following: An antigen is a protein on the virus ' surface that host antibodies can recognize and attack. Changes in

3042-561: The Greek παν- pan- meaning "all", or "every" and δῆμος demos "people". A common early characteristic of a pandemic is a rapid, sometimes exponential , growth in the number of infections, coupled with a widening geographical spread. WHO utilises different criteria to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), its nearest equivalent to the term pandemic. The potential consequences of an incident are considered, rather than its current status. For example, polio

3120-592: The HIV/AIDS pandemic , the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic . Almost all these diseases still circulate among humans though their impact now is often far less. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 194 member states of the World Health Organization began negotiations on an International Treaty on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response , with a requirement to submit

3198-581: The United Nations ' Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , written by 22 experts in a variety of fields, said the anthropogenic destruction of biodiversity is paving the way to the pandemic era and could result in as many as 850,000 viruses being transmitted from animals—in particular birds and mammals —to humans. The "exponential rise" in consumption and trade of commodities such as meat , palm oil , and metals, largely facilitated by developed nations, and

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3276-463: The antigenic characteristics of the agent make it easier for the changed virus to spread throughout a previously immune population. There are two natural mechanisms for change - antigenic drift and antigenic shift . Antigenic drift arises over a period of time as an accumulation of mutations in the virus genes , possibly through a series of hosts, and eventually gives rise to a new strain of virus which can evade existing immunity. Antigenic shift

3354-522: The common cold , that have resulted in outbreaks and pandemics such as the 1889-1890 pandemic , the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak , Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic . There is widespread concern that members of the coronavirus family, particularly SARS and MERS have the potential to cause future pandemics. Many human coronaviruses have zoonotic origin, their with natural reservoir in bats or rodents, leading to concerns for future spillover events. Following

3432-709: The indigenous peoples had no immunity. The Europeans infected with such diseases typically carried them in a dormant state , were actively infected but asymptomatic , or had only mild symptoms. Smallpox was the most destructive disease that was brought by Europeans to the Native Americans, both in terms of morbidity and mortality. The first well-documented smallpox epidemic in the Americas began in Hispaniola in late 1518 and soon spread to Mexico. Estimates of mortality range from one-quarter to one-half of

3510-621: The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) (hosted by the Pandemic Hub) aiming to detect and respond to disease threats before they become epidemics and pandemics, and to optimize routine disease surveillance. The network provides a platform to connect countries, improving systems for collecting and analysing samples of potentially harmful pathogens . Therapies and Vaccines - The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)

3588-617: The Pilgrim Settlers decided to make their settlement, the land that had been cleared and cultivated by the prior inhabitants (since dead through disease) was a primary reason for the location. Tisquantum was instrumental in the survival of the colony of English settlers at Plymouth . Samoset , a Pemaquid ( Abenaki ) sachem from Maine , introduced himself to the Pilgrims upon their arrival in 1620. Shortly thereafter, he introduced Tisquantum (who presumably spoke better English) to

3666-518: The Pilgrims landed in 1620, all the Patuxet except Tisquantum had died. The plagues have been attributed variously to smallpox , leptospirosis , and other diseases. Some European expedition captains were known to increase profits by capturing natives to sell as slaves . Such was the case when Thomas Hunt kidnapped several Wampanoag in 1614 in order to sell them later in Spain . One of Hunt's captives

3744-525: The Pilgrims, Squanto was undoubtedly the main factor in the Pilgrims' survival. In addition, he also served as an intermediary between the Pilgrims and Massasoit , the Grand Sachem of the Wampanoag (original name Ousamequin or "Yellow Feather"). As such, he was instrumental in the friendship treaty that the two signed, allowing the settlers to occupy the area around the former Patuxet village. Massasoit honored this treaty until his death in 1661. In

3822-558: The Pilgrims, who had settled at the site of Squanto's former village. From that point onward, Squanto devoted himself to helping the Pilgrims. Whatever his motivations, with great kindness and patience, he taught the English the skills they needed to survive, including how best to cultivate varieties of the Three Sisters : beans, maize and squash. Although Samoset appears to have been important in establishing initial relations with

3900-804: The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced a framework for characterising the progress of an influenza pandemic titled the Pandemic Intervals Framework . The six intervals of the framework are as follows: At the same time, the CDC adopted the Pandemic Severity Assessment Framework (PSAF) to assess the severity of influenza pandemics. The PSAF rates the severity of an influenza outbreak on two dimensions: clinical severity of illness in infected persons; and

3978-440: The control of an outbreak are containment and mitigation . Containment may be undertaken in the early stages of the outbreak, including contact tracing and isolating infected individuals to stop the disease from spreading to the rest of the population, other public health interventions on infection control, and therapeutic countermeasures such as vaccinations which may be effective if available. When it becomes apparent that it

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4056-619: The development of the National Pandemic Preparedness Plan for Respiratory Viruses using a multisectoral approach. Preceding this national effort, a regional workshop on the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) initiative was organized by WHO's South-East Asia Regional Office on October 12-13, 2023. Recognizing that the same capacities and capabilities can be leveraged and applied for groups of pathogens based on their mode of transmission,

4134-641: The diseases become accepted into people's daily lives and routines, becoming endemic . The transition from pandemic to endemic may be defined based on: An endemic disease is always present in a population, but at a relatively low and predictable level. There may be periodic spikes of infections or seasonality, (e.g. influenza ) but generally the burden on health systems is manageable. Pandemic prevention comprises activities such as anticipatory research and development of therapies and vaccines, as well as monitoring for pathogens and disease outbreaks which may have pandemic potential. Routine vaccination programs are

4212-402: The distribution of these diseases due to the changing geographic range of their vectors, with the potential to cause serious outbreaks in areas where the disease has not previously been known. The other group comprises water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid which may increase in prevalence due to changes in rainfall patterns. The October 2020 'era of pandemics' report by

4290-408: The early part of the 20th century, though it has now evolved into a separate human-only disease. Some strains of bird flu and swine flu are zoonoses; these viruses occasionally recombine with human strains of the flu and can cause pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish flu or the 2009 swine flu . In a common source outbreak epidemic, the affected individuals had an exposure to a common agent. If

4368-498: The end of the COVID-19 pandemic Public Health Emergency of International Concern deceleration by WHO, WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus stated he would not hesitate to re-declare COVID-19 a PHEIC should the global situation worsen in the coming months or years. Influenza was first described by the Greek physician Hippocrates in 412   BC. Since the Middle Ages, influenza pandemics have been recorded every 10 to 30 years as

4446-776: The epidemic peak, known as " flattening the curve ". This helps decrease the risk of health services being overwhelmed and provides more time for a vaccine and treatment to be developed. A broad group of non-pharmaceutical interventions may be taken to manage the outbreak. In a flu pandemic, these actions may include personal preventive measures such as hand hygiene, wearing face-masks, and self-quarantine; community measures aimed at social distancing such as closing schools and canceling mass gatherings; community engagement to encourage acceptance and participation in such interventions; and environmental measures such as cleaning of surfaces. Another strategy, suppression , requires more extreme long-term non-pharmaceutical interventions to reverse

4524-650: The exposure is singular and all of the affected individuals develop the disease over a single exposure and incubation course, it can be termed as a point source outbreak. If the exposure was continuous or variable, it can be termed as a continuous outbreak or intermittent outbreak, respectively. In a propagated outbreak, the disease spreads person-to-person. Affected individuals may become independent reservoirs leading to further exposures. Many epidemics will have characteristics of both common source and propagated outbreaks (sometimes referred to as mixed outbreak ). For example, secondary person-to-person spread may occur after

4602-553: The fall of 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag shared an autumn harvest feast. This three-day celebration involving the entire village and about 90 Wampanoag has been celebrated as a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. The event later inspired 19th-century Americans to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States. The harvest celebration took place at

4680-403: The following underlying factors: - Changes in behaviour can affect the likelihood or severity of epidemics. The classic example is the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak , in which a cholera outbreak was mitigated by removing a supply of contaminated water - an event now regarded as the foundation of the science of epidemiology . Urbanisation and overcrowding (e.g. in refugee camps ) increase

4758-404: The following years, immunity will decline, both within individuals and in the population as a whole as older individuals die and new individuals are born. Eventually, unless there is another vaccination campaign, an outbreak or epidemic will recur. It's also possible for disease which is endemic in one population to become epidemic if it is introduced into a novel setting where the host population

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4836-425: The historic site of the Patuxet villages. Squanto's involvement as an intermediary in negotiating the friendship treaty with Massasoit led to the joint feast between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag. This feast was a celebration of the first successful harvest season of the colonists. Pandemic A pandemic ( / p æ n ˈ d ɛ m ɪ k / pan-DEM-ik ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has

4914-442: The human population. For example, influenza is a rapidly evolving disease which has caused pandemics in the past and has potential to cause future pandemics. WHO collates the findings of 144 national influenza centres worldwide which monitor emerging flu viruses. Virus variants which are assessed as likely to represent a significant risk are identified and can then be incorporated into the next seasonal influenza vaccine program. In

4992-415: The likelihood of disease outbreaks. A factor which contributed to the initial rapid increase in the 2014 Ebola virus epidemic was ritual bathing of (infective) corpses; one of the control measures was an education campaign to change behaviour around funeral rites. The level of immunity to a disease in a population - herd immunity - is at its peak after a disease outbreak or a vaccination campaign. In

5070-402: The pandemic by reducing the basic reproduction number to less than   1. The suppression strategy, which includes stringent population-wide social distancing, home isolation of cases, and household quarantine, was undertaken by China during the COVID-19 pandemic where entire cities were placed under lockdown; such a strategy may carry with it considerable social and economic costs. For

5148-401: The population of central Mexico. It is estimated that over the 100 years after European arrival in 1492, the indigenous population of the Americas dropped from 60 million to only 6 million, due to a combination of disease, war, and famine. The majority these deaths are attributed to successive waves of introduced diseases such as smallpox, measles, and typhoid fever. In Australia , smallpox

5226-477: The population, in 1875, and in the early 19th century devastated the Great Andamanese population. In Hokkaido , an epidemic of smallpox introduced by Japanese settlers is estimated to have killed 34% of the native Ainu population in 1845. Prevention of future pandemics requires steps to identify future causes of pandemics and to take preventive measures before the disease moves uncontrollably into

5304-476: The possibility of zoonotic infections. The advent of agriculture, and trade between settled groups, made it possible for pathogens to spread widely. As population increased, contact between groups became more frequent. A history of epidemics maintained by the Chinese Empire from 243 B.C. to 1911 A.C. shows an approximate correlation between the frequency of epidemics and the growth of the population. Here

5382-536: The primary cause of pandemics so far, the anthropogenic destruction of the natural world through such activities including deforestation and hunting , is being ignored by world leaders. Epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί epi "upon or above" and δῆμος demos "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infections , an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks

5460-575: The report include taxing meat production and consumption, cracking down on the illegal wildlife trade, removing high-risk species from the legal wildlife trade, eliminating subsidies to businesses that are harmful to the natural world, and establishing a global surveillance network. In June 2021, a team of scientists assembled by the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment warned that

5538-495: The same population at once. It is often impossible to know the exact causes of mortality, although ancient DNA studies can sometimes detect residues of certain pathogens. It is assumed that, prior to the Neolithic Revolution around 10,000 BC, disease outbreaks were limited to a single family or clan, and did not spread widely before dying out. The domestication of animals increased human-animal contact, increasing

5616-449: The spread and evolution of influenza viruses through a network of about 150 laboratories in 114 countries representing 91% of the world's population. Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, which sometimes are referred to as " superbugs ", may contribute to the re-emergence of diseases with pandemic potential that are currently well controlled. For example, cases of tuberculosis that are resistant to traditionally effective treatments remain

5694-535: The transmissibility of the infection in the population. This tool was not applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 , a new strain of coronavirus , was first detected in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province , China, in December 2019. The outbreak was characterized as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) between January 2020 and May 2023 by WHO. The number of people infected with COVID-19 has reached more than 767 million worldwide, with

5772-417: The virus mutates to evade immunity. Influenza is an endemic disease , with a fairly constant number of cases which vary seasonally and can, to a certain extent, be predicted. In a typical year, 5–15% of the population contracts influenza. There are 3–5 million severe cases annually, with up to 650,000 respiratory-related deaths globally each year. The 1889–1890 pandemic is estimated to have caused around

5850-464: Was declared a PHEIC in 2014 even though only 482 cases were reported globally in the previous year; this was justified by concerns that polio might break out of its endemic areas and again become a significant health threat globally. The PHEIC status of polio is reviewed regularly and is ongoing, despite the small number of cases annually. The end of a pandemic is more difficult to delineate. Generally, past epidemics & pandemics have faded out as

5928-511: Was a Patuxet named Tisquantum, who eventually came to be known as Squanto (a nickname given to him by his friend William Bradford ). After Tisquantum regained his freedom, he was able to work his way to England where he lived for several years, working with a shipbuilder. He signed on as an interpreter for a British expedition to Newfoundland . From there Tisquantum went back to his home, only to discover that, in his absence, epidemics had killed everyone in his village. Tisquantum succumbed to

6006-866: Was first identified in Africa in 2006 and subsequently discovered to exist in 49 countries. During 2021 there were estimated to be around 25,000 cases XDR-TB worldwide. In the past 20 years, other common bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus , Serratia marcescens and Enterococcus , have developed resistance to a wide range of antibiotics . Antibiotic-resistant organisms have become an important cause of healthcare-associated ( nosocomial ) infections. There are two groups of infectious disease that may be affected by climate change. The first group are vector-borne diseases which are transmitted via insects such as mosquitos or ticks. Some of these diseases, such as malaria , yellow fever , and dengue fever , can have potentially severe health consequences. Climate can affect

6084-585: Was introduced by European settlers in 1789 devastating the Australian Aboriginal population, killing an estimated 50% of those infected with the disease during the first decades of colonisation. In the early 1800s, measles, smallpox and intertribal warfare killed an estimated 20,000 New Zealand Māori . In 1848–49, as many as 40,000 out of 150,000 Hawaiians are estimated to have died of measles , whooping cough and influenza . Measles killed more than 40,000 Fijians , approximately one-third of

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