Major Epidemics of the Modern Era

1899 – 2020

1899 – 1923

•Sixth Cholera Pandemic

•A new outbreak of cholera, a bacterial infection contracted through the
consumption of contaminated food and water, begins in India at the turn of the
century. The outbreak spreads to Russia, as well as to parts of the Middle East
and North Africa, ultimately killing hundreds of thousands of people.

1918 – 1920

•Spanish Flu Engulfs the Globe

•First publicly reported in Spain. It infects an estimated five hundred million
people.Many governments look to isolation measures, quarantines, and
disinfecting efforts, but the global movement of troops hinders containment.

1957 – 1958

• Asian Flu Pandemic

• A new strain of influenza virus, designated H2N2, is reported in
Singapore in February 1957, and soon spreads to China, Hong Kong, the
United Kingdom, and the United States. Though less severe than the
Spanish Flu, the Asian Flu kills more than one million people worldwide.
1961 – Present

• World’s Longest Pandemic

• A cholera pandemic originating in Indonesia spreads to other parts of
Asia, the Middle East, and Africa over the course of a decade,
and continues to this day.

1968 – 1969

•Hong Kong Flu Pandemic

•A decade after the Asian Flu, a new strain called H3N2 emerges. Commonly
called the Hong Kong Flu, it emerges first in Hong Kong.It soon travels across
East and South Asia, then to Australia, Europe, and North America, and on to
Africa and South America by 1969. Descendants of the H3N2 virus continue to
circulate seasonally worldwide.

1977 – 1980

•Smallpox Eradicated
•The last known case of smallpox, a viral disease that plagued humans for
millennia, is diagnosed in 1977 in Somalia, following a nearly two-decade-long
global vaccination campaign. Three years later the WHO formally declares it
eradicated around the globe.
1981 – Present

•HIV/AIDS Pandemic
•By the early 1990s AIDS becomes the leading cause of death in men between
the ages of twenty-five and forty-four in the United States. Today, close to forty
million people have HIV/AIDS, more than two-thirds of whom are in sub-
Saharan Africa.

2002 – 2003

•SARS Emerges in China

•The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, part of a family of
viruses that commonly cause respiratory symptoms such as coughing and
shortness of breath, first identified in 2002 in China. SARS spreads to more than
two dozen countries across four continents, infecting more than eight thousand
people. The virus is thought to have been transmitted to humans via contact
with civet cats.

2009 – 2010

•U.S. at Center of H1N1 Pandemic

•A new influenza virus, labeled H1N1 and commonly referred to as the swine flu
because of its links to influenza viruses that circulate in pigs, begins to spread in
early 2009 in Mexico and the United States. The WHO announces the
pandemic’s end in August 2010, though the strain continues to circulate
seasonally.
2012

•MERS Uncovered in Middle East

•A new coronavirus, named Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), is
transmitted to humans from camels in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. The virus
commonly causes pneumonia in those infected and has a relatively high fatality
rate.

2014

•Uptick in Polio Prompts WHO Emergency

•The disease, disproportionately affects young people, proves hard to eliminate
completely, particularly in conflict zones. Widespread mistrust of vaccination
programs is a major challenge and the disease is still endemic in three countries:
Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

2014 – 2016

•Ebola Sweeps West Africa

•Ebola virus, a rare and severe infectious disease ,detected in Guinea and soon
after in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The hardest-hit countries declare themselves
Ebola-free in June 2016.
2015

•Fight Against Mosquito-Borne Diseases- Malaria,Dengue etc. Continues.

2015 – 2016

•Zika Spreads Across Americas

•An outbreak of the Zika virus, first discovered in Uganda in the 1940s
,transmitted mainly by mosquitoes. By mid 2016, more than sixty countries
report cases of the virus, including the United States. Thousands of women
infected with the virus gave birth to babies with microcephaly.The WHO
declares the end of the epidemic in November 2016.

2018 – Present

•Ebola Returns in Conflict-Stricken Congo

•In August 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo declares an outbreak of the
Ebola virus in the country’s northeast. By June 2019, the Ebola outbreak
becomes the second largest in history. By early 2020, the outbreak appears to
be winding down, with no new cases reported after mid-February.
2019 – Present

•COVID-19 Runs Rampant

•A new coronavirus emerges in China’s Hubei Province in late 2019, spreading
rapidly to other parts of China and infecting tens of thousands of people. The
disease soon travels to other parts of Asia and the rest of the world.By March,
the virus reaches more than one hundred countries, leading the WHO to
designate the outbreak a pandemic.