By the end of the 19th century, the germ theory of disease had been put on a sound empirical basis by the work of the great European scientists Louis Pasteur , Joseph Lister , and Robert Koch . Smallpox Pandemic, 1877-1977 Black Death Plague, 1347-1351 Spanish Flu Pandemic, 1918-1919 HIV/AIDS Pandemic, 1981-present Plague of Justinian, 541-542 Third Plague Pandemic, 1855-1960 Hong Kong Flu, 1968-1970 1894 – the year of the Third Pandemic, which broke out in Yunnan, China, before spreading to Hong Kong, India, and the rest of the world. Plague is also transmissible person to person when in its pneumonic form. It reportedly killed one-third of Europe's population in the 14th century. The Third Plague Pandemic (1855–1959) was unprecedented for a number of reasons. In remote Tahiti, 10% of the population died. The agrarian system of the empire was restructured to eventually become the three field feudal system. Food production was severely disrupted and an eight year famine followed. The third plague pandemic was the last, for it coincided with (and in some cases motivated) a series of achievements in the scientific understanding of the disease. In 664 plague laid waste to Ireland, and in England it came to be known as the Plague of Cadwaladyr’s Time, after a Welsh king who contracted plague but survived it in 682. The brown rat flourished in Europe where there were open sewers and ample breeding grounds and food and in the 18th and 19th centuries replaced the black rat as the main disease host.4, 9, The primary vectors for transmission of the disease from rats to humans were the Oriental or Indian rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, and the Northern or European rat flea, Nosopsyllus fasciatus. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as COVID-19 has. The Black Death of 1347 originated in Asia and spread to the Crimea then Europe and Russia. All rights reserved. There were 12 major outbreaks of plague in Australia from 1900 to 1925 with 1371 cases and 535 deaths, most cases occurring in Sydney.26, The third pandemic waxed and waned throughout the world for the next five decades and did not end until 1959, in that time plague had caused over 15 million deaths, the majority of which were in India. An old English nursery rhyme published in Kate Greenaway’s book Mother Goose 1881 reminds us of the symptoms of the plague : ‘Ring, a-ring, o’rosies, (a red blistery rash), A pocket full of posies (fragrant herbs and flowers to ward off the ‘miasmas’), Atishoo, atishoo (the sneeze and the cough heralding pneumonia). The infectious fever wreaked havoc on Chinese citizens, killing tens of thousands, and by the late 19th century it had made its way to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, which proved devastating. The Bubonic Plague or Black Death is considered as one of the worst pandemics in history. However, it occurred at a time when scientific understanding of diseases was developing, giving doctors and scientists a perfect empirical test case for germ theory and new medicines. 12 million. The Third Plague Pandemic, also referred to as the Modern Plague, refers to a bubonic plague pandemic that started in the Yunnan province in China in 1855 during the fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty.It caused almost 12 million deaths. Crops could not be harvested, travelling and trade became curtailed, and food and manufactured goods became short. Ziegler17 states it derives from the translation of the Latin pestis atra or atra mors, ‘atra’ meaning ‘terrible’ or ‘dreadful’, the connotation of which was ‘black’, and ‘mors’ meaning ‘death’, and so ‘atra mors’ was translated as meaning ‘black death’. ... the Black Death was caused by the bubonic plague. Some historians however claim that the plague wiped out nearly 2/3rd of the entire European population. The network of global shipping ensured the widespread distribution of the disease over the next few decades. A disease called the Justinian plague, or bubonic plague, eliminated half of Europe’s population. Bubonic plague also has military significance and is listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a Category A bioterrorism agent.1. © 2019 TIME USA, LLC. Today, although there have been no recent pandemics of plague, it is important to remember that … The second — which was known as the Black Death — swept through medieval Europe, starting from the … By the end of the pandemic, a whopping third of the world’s population had caught the virus. S1). The third, or modern, pandemic started in China in the 19th century and spread to many parts of the world in port cities. Plague epidemics in Europe during the First and Second Pandemics, including the Black Death, are infamous for their widespread mortality and lasting social and economic impact. Spanish Flu (1918 flu pandemic) – The cause of Spanish flu was Influenza (Virus Strain – H1N1) which affected 500 million people i.e. The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. Currently around 2,000 cases occur annually, mostly in Africa, Asia and South America, with a global case fatality rate of 5% to 15%.28. The Three Great Pandemics, History of Tuberculosis. The plague re-emerged from its wild rodent reservoir in the remote Chinese province of Yunnan in 1855. 1894 – the year in which Yersinia pestis was discovered by the French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin, working in Hong Kong following the outbreak of the Third Pandemic that same year. Procopius wrote of the symptoms of the disease : “ … with the majority it came about that they were seized by the disease without becoming aware of what was coming either through a waking vision or a dream. Black Death was coined from the black spots on the skin of the sailors who brought with them the disease when they docked in a Sicilian port, after traveling the Silk Road. From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere,..“17. The 1918 flu pandemic is considered as the most catastrophic pandemic in modern history. Third Plague. In most human plague epidemics, infection initially took the form of large purulent abscesses of lymph nodes, the bubo (L. bubo = ‘groin’, Gr. 2. The three great plague pandemics had different geographic origins and paths of spread. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic was the worst in recent history, with one-third of the earth’s population becoming infected with the H1N1 virus, eventually killing 50 million people. [17] The Great Fire of London in 1666 and the subsequent rebuilding of timber and thatch houses with brick and tile disturbed the rats’ normal habitat and led to a reduction in their numbers, and may have been a contributing factor to the end of the epidemic.9. It continued to spread, reaching Hong Kong in 1894 and Bombay in 1896. As they always marched two abreast, the procession of the numerous penitents reached farther than the eye could see.” [20]. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. The siege of the Tartars was unsuccessful and before they left, from a description by Gabriel de Mussis from Piacenza, in revenge they catapulted over the walls of Kaffa corpses of people who had died from the Black Death. The villeins prospered and acquired land and property. The overall mortality rate varied from city to city, but in places such as Florence as observed by Boccaccio up to half the population died, the Italians calling the epidemic the mortalega grande, ‘the great mortality’. There have been outbreaks of plague since, such as in China and Tanzania in 1983, Zaire in 1992, and India, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in 199415, 27. The second plague pandemic was a major series of epidemics of plague that started with the Black Death, which reached Europe in 1348 and killed up to a half of the population of Eurasia in the next four years. Recorded outbreaks included the following: Butler [11] states the term refers to the haemorrhagic purpura and ischaemic gangrene of the limbs that sometimes ensued from the septicaemia. Black Death. Third plague pandemic (1855 – 1860) Bubonic plague : more than 12 million – India and China, then spreading worldwide. Plague of 541 started in central Africa and spread to Egypt and the Mediterranean. 6,000,000 – the number of people killed in the Third Pandemic. The Black Plague is said to have been the worst of the plagues, but it was the second of three large plague pandemics in history. ROSS CLARK: 47,750 deaths in English hospitals. If we look in the past, the Wuhan virus is not the first pandemic. The fleas multiply prolifically on their host and when the host dies they leave immediately, infesting new hosts and thus creating the foundations for an epidemic.10, 11, The first great pandemic of bubonic plague where people were recorded as suffering from the characteristic buboes and septicaemia was the Justinian Plague of 541 CE, named after Justinian I, the Roman emperor of the Byzantine Empire at the time. Plague epidemics in Europe during the First and Second Pandemics, including the Black Death, are infamous for their widespread mortality and lasting social and economic impact. The disease spread as far north as Denmark and west to Ireland, then further to Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor. Key facts. What was the Third Plague Pandemic? Victims were too numerous to be buried and were stacked high in the city’s churches and city wall towers, their Christian doctrine preventing their disposal by cremation. What was the Third Plague Pandemic? It was during this pandemic that the real cause (Y. pestis) was discovered, along with a cure. It was natural, therefore, that not one of those who had contracted the disease expected to die from it. The Black Death was a bubonic plague, caused by a bacteria named Yersinia Pestis, that devastated Europe peaking from 1347 to 1351.With a death count of 75 to 200 million people, it is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history. Much has changed to prevent the recurrence of pandemic plague, such as the development of the germ theory and the science of bacteriology, public health measures such as quarantine, and antibiotics such as streptomycin, but plague today is still an important and potentially serious threat to the health of people and animals. Vaccines may not put an end to the pandemic. Third Plague. The social and economic disruption caused by the pandemic marked the end of Roman rule and led to the birth of culturally distinctive societal groups that later formed the nations of medieval Europe.12. Second Pandemic: The Black Death. The primary hosts of the fleas are the black urban rat and the brown sewer rat. Altogether, the third plague pandemic claimed around 12 million lives in India – it was a very Indian pandemic. The term “Black Death” was not used until much later in history and in 1347 was simply known as “the pestilence” or “pestilentia”, and there are various explanations of the origin of the term. The Third Plague Pandemic (1855–1959) was unprecedented for a number of reasons. By 1430, Europe’s population was lower than it had been in 1290 and would not recover the pre-pandemic level until the 16th century.13, 21, In 1374 when another epidemic of the Black Death re-emerged in Europe, Venice instituted various public health controls such as isolating victims from healthy people and preventing ships with disease from landing at port. When infected, the proventriculus of the flea becomes blocked by a mass of bacteria. It killed more than 50 … Like the plague, throughout history several devastating cholera outbreaks have ravaged cities and populations, all while humans desperately struggled to understand how and why the disease was spreading, and what exactly they could do, if anything, to prevent it. During the Third Pandemic, plague spread rapidly and caused outbreaks in many regions worldwide (10, 11) (SI Appendix, Fig. The course of development of communities and nations was altered several times. Plague-ridden fleas hitched a ride on the black rats that snac… By … Often whole families were wiped out and villages abandoned. . The third pandemic, that of 1894, originated in Yunnan, China, and spread to Hong Kong and India, then to the rest of the world.2. The plague re-emerged from its wild rodent reservoir in the remote Chinese province of Yunnan in 1855. Review, The History of Plague – Part 1. During all three pandemics, distinct strains of Y. pestis were introduced to Europe causing epidemics of plague, including the infamous Black Death (1346–1353); the strains from … The third Asian bubonic plague pandemic emerged in Yunnan, China, during the fifth year of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing dynasty. People turned to patron saints such as St Roch and St Sebastian or to the Virgin Mary, or joined processions of flagellants whipping themselves with nail embedded scourges and incanting hymns and prayers as they passed from town to town.17, 19, 20, “When the flagellants – they were also called cross brethren and cross bearers – entered a town, a borough or a village in a procession their entry was accompanied by the pealing of bells, singing, and a huge crowd of people. The outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe was a key event in its history. Number of death due to Third Plague – More than 12 Millions people . Antonine plage (165 – 180) Smallpox or Measles : 5 – 10 million – Roman Empire The epidemic reached a peak in September 1665 when 7,000 people per week were dying in London alone. The Third Plague Pandemic, also referred to as the Modern Plague, refers to a bubonic plague pandemic that started in the Yunnan province in China in 1855 during the fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty.It caused almost 12 million deaths. 1968-1970. Actually, the initial wave of deaths from the pandemic in the first half of 1918 was relatively low. Issue Volume 20 No. 1900 – the year the plague of the Third Pandemic appeared in Britain, in Glasgow. In 1346 it was known in the European seaports that a plague epidemic was present in the East. The epidemic originated in Ethiopia in Africa and spread to Pelusium in Egypt in 540. Interesting Black Death Facts: 1-10. There was an estimated 15 million victims. The human flea, Pulex irritans, and the dog and cat fleas, Ctenocephalides canis and felis, were secondary vectors. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the great influenza pandemic of 1918. The third pandemic, that of 1894, originated in Yunnan, China, and spread to Hong Kong and India, then to the rest of the world.2 The Black Death of 1347 originated in Asia and spread to the Crimea then Europe and Russia. The third plague pandemic occurred later, in the middle of the 19th century and originated in Eastern Asia. From there the disease advanced along the tin and opium routes and reached the provincial capital of K’unming in 1866, the Gulf of Tonkin in 1867, and the Kwangtung province port of Pakhoi (now Pei-hai) in 1882. The sexton and the physician were cast into the same deep and wide grave; the testator and his heirs and executors were hurled from the same cart into the same hole together.”18, Transmission of the disease was thought to be by miasmas, disease carrying vapours emanating from corpses and putrescent matter or from the breath of an infected or sick person. Plague waxed and waned in Europe until the late 18th century, but not with the virulence and mortality of the 14th century European Black Death. Yet, Europe still experienced plague outbreaks during the Third Pandemic, which began in China and spread globally at the end of the nineteenth century. 1. On more than one occasion plague irrevocably changed the social and economic fabric of society. The third plague pandemic in Europe Many people are aware of the Black Death that ravaged Medieval Europe and killed about half of the population, but fewer people know that Europe was also hit by the plague during the third plague pandemic, which started in 1894 when it spread out of Hong Kong to the rest of the world – including Europe. Russian flu. The disease had the greatest impact on the Bidgetinian Empire and the Mediterranean … Here are 10 facts about the “greatest pandemic in history” that people still get wrong. boubon = ‘swelling in the groin’), this was bubonic plague. The causative organism, Yersinia pestis, was not discovered until the 1894 pandemic and was discovered in Hong Kong by a French Pastorien bacteriologist, Alexandre Yersin. The first occurred during the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century and killed an estimated 25 million people. A second major epidemic occurred in 1361, the pestis secunda, in which 10 to 20% of Europe’s population died.13 Other virulent infectious disease epidemics with high mortalities occurred during this time such as smallpox, infantile diarrhoea and dysentery. Abstract. The third plague pandemic has left a pervasive legacy, which is often forgotten by those who mistakenly set the origins of modern epidemiology … It became known as the third plague pandemic. Plague occurrences of the Third Pandemic were well recorded. It was manned by local peasants with checkpoints and quarantine stations to prevent infected people from crossing from eastern to western Europe.8, The leather costume of the plague doctors at Nijmegen, In the 15th and 16th centuries doctors wore a peculiar costume to protect themselves from the plague when they attended infected patients, first illustrated in a drawing by Paulus Furst in 1656 and later Jean-Jacques described a similar costume worn by the plague doctors at Nijmegen, an old Dutch town in Gelderland, in his 1721 work Treatise on the Plague. In different periods it affected citizens such as Hong Kong (1894), Bombái (1896), passing through Sydney (1900), Cape Town (1901) and Los Angeles (1924). The Third Plague refers to the most recent pandemic outbreak of bubonic plague, which began in 1885 in the Chinese province of Yunnan. And the body showed no change from its previous colour, nor was it hot as might be expected when attacked by a fever, nor indeed did any inflammation set in, but the fever was of such a languid sort from its commencement and up till evening that neither to the sick themselves nor to a physician who touched them would it afford any suspicion of danger. The plague re-emerged in the Chinese province of Yunnan in 1855. The flea continues to feed, biting with increasing frequency and agitation, and in an attempt to relieve the obstruction the flea regurgitates the accumulated blood together with a mass of Yersinia pestis bacilli directly into the bloodstream of the host. The ‘Black Death’ of Europe in 1347 to 1352, The Black Death of 1347 was the first major European outbreak of the second great plague pandemic that occurred over the 14th to 18th centuries. Bubonic plague is a virulent disease with a significant mortality rate, transmitted primarily by the bite of the rat flea or through person-to-person when in its pneumonic form. Soon there was a shortage of doctors which led to a proliferation of quacks selling useless cures and amulets and other adornments that claimed to offer magical protection. The third plague pandemic was a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan, China, in 1855 during the fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty. The third plague pandemic was a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan, China, in 1855 during the fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty. And it has killed approximately more than 50 million people, which greatly outnumbered the total death toll of the First World War that was around 17 million. Ancient DNA studies have identified Yersinia pestis, the aetiological agent of the Third Pandemic, as the cause of the previous plague pandemics: the First Pandemic (sixth to eighth centuries) [1–3] and the Second Pandemic (fourteen to nineteenth centuries) [4–8]. They wore a protective garb head to foot with leather or oil cloth robes, leggings, gloves and hood, a wide brimmed hat which denoted their medical profession, and a beak like mask with glass eyes and two breathing nostrils which was filled with aromatic herbs and flowers to ward off the miasmas. But on the same day in some cases, in others on the following day, and in the rest not many days later, a bubonic swelling developed; and this took place not only in the particular part of the body which is called boubon, that is, “below the abdomen,” but also inside the armpit, and in some cases also beside the ears, and at different points on the thighs.”14, The focus of the Justinian pandemic was Constantinople, reaching a peak in the spring of 542 with 5,000 deaths per day in the city, although some estimates vary to 10,000 per day, and it went on to kill over a third of the city’s population. China's Yunnan province was the setting for the third and last great plague pandemic, which began in the 1850s. In 1377 the republic of Ragusa on the Adriatic Sea (now Dubrovnik in Yugoslavia) established a ships’ landing station far from the city and harbour in which travellers suspected to have the plague had to spend thirty days, the trentena, to see whether they became ill and died or whether they remained healthy and could leave. From there the disease advanced along the tin and opium routes and reached the provincial capital of K’unming in 1866, the Gulf of Tonkin in 1867, and the Kwangtung province port of Pakhoi (now Pei-hai) in 1882. This deadly bubonic plague eventually traveled through India and Hong Kong, killing at least 12–15 million people. This has been a large part of why we haven't seen a fourth pandemic. With officials saying the outbreak is stabilizing, TIME looks at other devastating scourges throughout history. The third wave of the pandemic occurred in the following winter, and by the spring the virus had run its course. People infected with Y. pestis often develop symptoms after an incubation period of one to seven days. As for fleas, unlike during the ‘third pandemic’, when plague cases and deaths followed closely the seasonal fertility cycles of various species of rat fleas, no such correlations are found with the Black Death or later European plagues before the end of the 19th century. The Third Plague Pandemic until today. In the two later waves about half the deaths were among 20- to 40-year-olds, an unusual mortality age pattern for influenza. 200,000. Part 1 – Phthisis, consumption and the White Plague. Three of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history were caused by a single bacterium, Yersinia pestis, a fatal infection otherwise known as the plague. In this second pandemic, plague again caused great social and economic upheaval. The plague reached Europe through the sea in October 1348. History has witnessed many such viruses like The great plague of Marseille, the first Cholera pandemic from 1817 to 1824, the third plague pandemic, which started in China sometime in 1855 and remained active until 1960. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. Yersinia pestis is a very pathogenic organism to both humans and animals and before antibiotics had a very high mortality rate. For the first time in history, bubonic plague reached all five continents, striking major cities from Hong Kong (in 1894) to Bombay (1896), Sydney (1900), Cape Town (1901) and Los Angeles (1924). 1855: The Third Plague Pandemic The third wave of the bubonic plague started in China and moved to India and Hong Kong. In the end, the plague killed some 12 million people. Hong Kong flu. There have been innumerable epidemics of plague throughout history, but it was the pandemics of the 6th, 14th and 20th centuries that have had the most impact on human society, not only in terms of the great mortalities, but also the social, economic and cultural consequences that resulted. Plague in the sixteenth to nineteenth century. There are two main clinical forms of plague infection: bubonic and pneumonic. The Antonine Plague, which may have been smallpox, laid waste to the army and may have killed over 5 million people in the Roman empire, wrote April Pudsey, a senior lecturer in Roman History … Some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavocciolo. 1855: The Third Plague Pandemic Starting in China and moving to India and Hong Kong, the bubonic plague claimed 15 million victims. The third pandemic, that of 1894, originated in Yunnan, China, and spread to Hong Kong and India, then to the rest of the world.2, The causative organism, Yersinia pestis, was not discovered until the 1894 pandemic and was discovered in Hong Kong by a French Pastorien bacteriologist, Alexandre Yersin. In the pandemics, the infected fleas were able to spread the plague over long distances as they were carried by rats and by humans travelling along trade routes at sea and overland, and also by infesting rice and wheat grain, clothing, and trade merchandise. Plague of Justinian (541 – 542) Bubonic plague : 25 million – killed quarter of Europe population. 1889-1890. In the period 1347 to 1350 the Black Death killed a quarter of the population in Europe, over 25 million people, and another 25 million in Asia and Africa. As humans have spread across the world, so have infectious diseases. Pathogen: Yersinia pestis Outcome: over 15 million deaths. influenza pandemic of 1918–19: Walter Reed Hospital. The Plague of Justinian arrived in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 541 CE. It infected around 500 million people or one-third of the Earth's population at that time. In epidemics plague is transmitted to humans by the bite of the Oriental or Indian rat flea and the human flea. In Madagascar in the mid-1990’s, a multi-drug resistant strain of the bacillus was identified15, 28. By John Frith Further major outbreaks occurred throughout Europe and the Middle East over the next 200 years – in Constantinople in the years 573, 600, 698 and 747, in Iraq, Egypt and Syria in the years 669, 683, 698, 713, 732 and 750 and Mesopotamia in 686 and 704. Four years later in 1898 his successor, Paul-Louis Simond, a fellow Asia and migrated westward on the sea routes from China and India. the third plague pandemic from 1855 to 1960, spreading from China to various places around the world, notably India and the West Coast of the United States. The third plague pandemic occurred later, in the middle of the 19th century and originated in Eastern Asia. Spanish flu that lasted from 1918 until 1920 was the deadliest pandemic ever. Modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as COVID-19.... As they always marched two abreast, the plague re-emerged from its wild third plague pandemic facts! ] states the term refers to the pandemic the Fiji Islands What the... Of avian origin a key event in its pneumonic form visualization outlines some history! Remote Chinese province of Yunnan in 1855 in China and moving to India and Hong,... 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