Pandemics in history
Published Apr 21, 2020 12:00 am
THE LEGAL FRONT
By JUSTICE ART D. BRION (RET.)
Justice Art D. Brion (Ret.)
COVID-19 first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, and as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
The WHO director general made the pandemic declaration after COVID-19 cases outside China had increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries tripled. There were then 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people had lost their lives.
A little more than a month after (on April 18, 2020), there were more than 2.165 million COVID-19 cases in 210 countries and territories, resulting in more than 146,198 deaths.
In the Philippines, as of April 18, we had 6,087 infected cases, 397 deaths, and 516 cases of recoveries. Of the infected, 766 are health care workers, 339 of whom are doctors and 242 are nurses. Twenty-two of them have died.
I compile these data from Internet sources to send a message of hope amidst the fears and anxieties that have attended the COVID-19 outbreak.
Pandemics are not new in mankind’s history. Past infections were widespread and many people died because we had gone against nature or had forgotten our past lessons. But mankind always survived.
We are now at our most scientifically advanced period of human existence; no reason now exists to believe that we shall not triumph over the challenges COVID-19 now poses.
But we have to know the extent and severity of the challenges we are facing and their consequences, and we must be ready to pay the price.
Part of the price is to exercise better discipline as a people; to take stock and reform our negative cultural ways, and act as one undivided community despite our political differences, to ensure our triumph at the soonest possible time.
Bubonic Plague. The first pandemic in our recorded history was caused by bubonic plague, originating from the bacterium Yersinia Pestis carried by fleas that infested rats. It originally spread in the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. Humans were infected through direct contact with infected fleas, rats, and other animals.
The pandemic was known as the Plague of Justinian after Justinian I who was infected but fortunately survived. The plague struck Constantinople in 542, working its way from port city to port city, and spread around the Mediterranean Sea, later migrating inland eastward into Asia Minor and west into Greece and Italy. The plague initially killed some 25 million people, but fatalities doubled to 50 million in two centuries of recurrence.
The bubonic pandemic recurred In the late Middle Ages in Europe where it was called the Black Death, killing a third of the European population. Historians believed that it originated in Mongolia in Central Asia where an outbreak took place in early 1330s. It was transported to Europe in the ships of Italian merchants fleeing the Mongols. From Italy, it migrated to other European countries.
The plague once again resurfaced in the 2nd half of the 18th century. As in the two past outbreaks, this one also originated from Eastern Asia, most likely in Yunnan Province of China. It remained localized in Northwestern China for a time before spreading.
From China, the disease spread to port cities throughout the world via shipping routes in the 2nd half of the 19th century to the early 20th century. By 1894, the disease had killed 80,000 people in Canton and from there spread to Hong Kong, killing over 2,400 within two months. It was still spreading by the turn of the 20th century.
The plague infected the US through San Francisco and led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The last outbreak in the US was in Los Angeles in 1924 but the disease is still present in isolated cases in the US and some areas of the world.
Spanish Flu. The world’s next pandemic – the Spanish Flu – came in 1918 and was, by far, the deadliest to hit the world. The influenza earned its Spanish appellation because the highest reports of infection and death reports came from Spain. The World War I’s Allied countries – France, Britain, and the US – however, could have had higher incidence but early reports were suppressed because of the war.
The Spanish flu lasted from January, 1918, to December, 1920, infecting a total of about 500 million people – about a quarter of the world's population at that time. The death toll was estimated to be anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. It killed more people in 24 weeks than HIV/AIDS killed in 24 years, and is related to the less widespread swine flu which came in 2009.
Spanish Flu afflicted and killed people all over the world. Some 12 to 17 million people died in India, about 5% of the population. The death toll in India's British-ruled districts was 13.88 million.
Estimates for China varied widely but later estimates placed the death toll at 1 to 1.28 million based on data available from Chinese port-cities. In Japan, 23 million people were infected and at least 390,000 reportedly died. In Indonesia, 1.5 million were assumed to have died among its 30 million inhabitants. In Tahiti, 13% of the population died in one month. In Samoa, 22% of the population of 38,000 died within two months.
In New Zealand, flu killed an estimated 6,400 Pakeha and 2,500 indigenous Maori in six weeks, with Māoris dying at eight times the rate of the Pakehas. In Iran, the mortality was very high: according to an estimate -- between 902,400 and 2,431,000, or 8% to 22% of the total population died.
In the US, about 28% of the population of 105 million became infected, and 500,000 to 850,000 died (0.48 to 0.81 percent of the population). Native American tribes were particularly hard hit. In Canada, 50,000 lost their lives. Brazil had a mortality of 300,000, including its president, Rodrigues Alves. In Britain, as many as 250,000 succumbed. In France, deaths were pegged at more than 400,000. In Ghana, the epidemic killed at least 100,000 people. The future Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia) was one of the first Ethiopians afflicted by influenza but survived. Estimates for fatalities in the capital city, Addis Ababa, ranged from 5,000 to 10,000, or higher. In British Somaliland, one official estimated that 7% of the native population died.
The huge death toll resulted from an extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms or the over reaction of the immune system to the disease. The pandemic mostly killed young adults.
Space limitation compels me to continue this narrative next week. I shall then outline the Ebola and the Sars-Mers epidemics, and finally, COVID-19.
May God bless us all.
[email protected]
Justice Art D. Brion (Ret.)
COVID-19 first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, and as a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
The WHO director general made the pandemic declaration after COVID-19 cases outside China had increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries tripled. There were then 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people had lost their lives.
A little more than a month after (on April 18, 2020), there were more than 2.165 million COVID-19 cases in 210 countries and territories, resulting in more than 146,198 deaths.
In the Philippines, as of April 18, we had 6,087 infected cases, 397 deaths, and 516 cases of recoveries. Of the infected, 766 are health care workers, 339 of whom are doctors and 242 are nurses. Twenty-two of them have died.
I compile these data from Internet sources to send a message of hope amidst the fears and anxieties that have attended the COVID-19 outbreak.
Pandemics are not new in mankind’s history. Past infections were widespread and many people died because we had gone against nature or had forgotten our past lessons. But mankind always survived.
We are now at our most scientifically advanced period of human existence; no reason now exists to believe that we shall not triumph over the challenges COVID-19 now poses.
But we have to know the extent and severity of the challenges we are facing and their consequences, and we must be ready to pay the price.
Part of the price is to exercise better discipline as a people; to take stock and reform our negative cultural ways, and act as one undivided community despite our political differences, to ensure our triumph at the soonest possible time.
Bubonic Plague. The first pandemic in our recorded history was caused by bubonic plague, originating from the bacterium Yersinia Pestis carried by fleas that infested rats. It originally spread in the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. Humans were infected through direct contact with infected fleas, rats, and other animals.
The pandemic was known as the Plague of Justinian after Justinian I who was infected but fortunately survived. The plague struck Constantinople in 542, working its way from port city to port city, and spread around the Mediterranean Sea, later migrating inland eastward into Asia Minor and west into Greece and Italy. The plague initially killed some 25 million people, but fatalities doubled to 50 million in two centuries of recurrence.
The bubonic pandemic recurred In the late Middle Ages in Europe where it was called the Black Death, killing a third of the European population. Historians believed that it originated in Mongolia in Central Asia where an outbreak took place in early 1330s. It was transported to Europe in the ships of Italian merchants fleeing the Mongols. From Italy, it migrated to other European countries.
The plague once again resurfaced in the 2nd half of the 18th century. As in the two past outbreaks, this one also originated from Eastern Asia, most likely in Yunnan Province of China. It remained localized in Northwestern China for a time before spreading.
From China, the disease spread to port cities throughout the world via shipping routes in the 2nd half of the 19th century to the early 20th century. By 1894, the disease had killed 80,000 people in Canton and from there spread to Hong Kong, killing over 2,400 within two months. It was still spreading by the turn of the 20th century.
The plague infected the US through San Francisco and led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The last outbreak in the US was in Los Angeles in 1924 but the disease is still present in isolated cases in the US and some areas of the world.
Spanish Flu. The world’s next pandemic – the Spanish Flu – came in 1918 and was, by far, the deadliest to hit the world. The influenza earned its Spanish appellation because the highest reports of infection and death reports came from Spain. The World War I’s Allied countries – France, Britain, and the US – however, could have had higher incidence but early reports were suppressed because of the war.
The Spanish flu lasted from January, 1918, to December, 1920, infecting a total of about 500 million people – about a quarter of the world's population at that time. The death toll was estimated to be anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. It killed more people in 24 weeks than HIV/AIDS killed in 24 years, and is related to the less widespread swine flu which came in 2009.
Spanish Flu afflicted and killed people all over the world. Some 12 to 17 million people died in India, about 5% of the population. The death toll in India's British-ruled districts was 13.88 million.
Estimates for China varied widely but later estimates placed the death toll at 1 to 1.28 million based on data available from Chinese port-cities. In Japan, 23 million people were infected and at least 390,000 reportedly died. In Indonesia, 1.5 million were assumed to have died among its 30 million inhabitants. In Tahiti, 13% of the population died in one month. In Samoa, 22% of the population of 38,000 died within two months.
In New Zealand, flu killed an estimated 6,400 Pakeha and 2,500 indigenous Maori in six weeks, with Māoris dying at eight times the rate of the Pakehas. In Iran, the mortality was very high: according to an estimate -- between 902,400 and 2,431,000, or 8% to 22% of the total population died.
In the US, about 28% of the population of 105 million became infected, and 500,000 to 850,000 died (0.48 to 0.81 percent of the population). Native American tribes were particularly hard hit. In Canada, 50,000 lost their lives. Brazil had a mortality of 300,000, including its president, Rodrigues Alves. In Britain, as many as 250,000 succumbed. In France, deaths were pegged at more than 400,000. In Ghana, the epidemic killed at least 100,000 people. The future Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia) was one of the first Ethiopians afflicted by influenza but survived. Estimates for fatalities in the capital city, Addis Ababa, ranged from 5,000 to 10,000, or higher. In British Somaliland, one official estimated that 7% of the native population died.
The huge death toll resulted from an extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms or the over reaction of the immune system to the disease. The pandemic mostly killed young adults.
Space limitation compels me to continue this narrative next week. I shall then outline the Ebola and the Sars-Mers epidemics, and finally, COVID-19.
May God bless us all.
[email protected]