In fact, the entire period of human history was something like permanent attempts to survive and adapt to all new diseases, often put on the threat of the existence of people as a species. Every time you come up with a new way to combat various infectious diseases, pathogens change and mutate, becoming better adapted to the new "weapon" against them. And so happens for thousands of years. Recall the ten most terrible epidemics in the history of mankind, which threatened with whole civilizations.
1. Prehistoric Chuma
It is believed that the Great Plague, which occurred about 100,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic period, sharply reduced the number of people, in particular, "twinking" almost all young people. Scientists believe that this epidemic reduced the population of Africa to less than 10,000 people. Researchers came to this conclusion, highlighting two specific genes that make monkeys less susceptible to some pretty cruel diseases. People have one gene disappeared, and the other now does not function. After the end of the Homo Sapiens pandemic began to develop and settle down quickly, and the genetic change could help in this, lowered their susceptibility to certain diseases.2. Sweden
Recently, a lot of bodies were found in the Swedish caves in the Swedish caves, as well as scientists found something very terrifying: the oldest well-known strain of the plague, about the similar strain of the Black Plague (Yersinia Pestis bacterium), which destroyed most of the medieval Europe in several occasions. It is believed that this outbreak of the plague broke out long before the well-known scientists of historical epidemics. The detection of bacteria on the bodies of 5000 years ago in Sweden gives this idea quite weighty arguments. Prior to that, the first known mass outbreak Y. Pestis was Justinianova Plague, which put the Byzantine Empire on his knees in 541 of our era and continued to mercilessly to exterminate people for another 200 years, killing more than 25 million people.
Also, scientists knew that about 5,000-6000 years ago, the population was sharply reduced by some reasons. Researchers are now beginning to think that they found the culprit of this - the very first "black plague". Bacterry is still preserved today, so there may be a reasonable question - so why it is not so deadly as the one that practically destroyed the remaining part of the Roman Empire, or as the plague of the XIV century, which killed up to 60 percent of the population of Europe. The answer is simple - people have adapted and accustomed to fight with various deaths previously.
3. Athens
Athens suffered greatly from the mysterious pathogen between 430 and 427 to our era. The epidemic, known as the Athenian plague, strongly prevented the plans of the city-state during the Peloponnesian war. This plague is described in detail in the well-known work "History of the Peloponnesian War", which describes the disease that destroyed more than a third of the Athenian population at the time. The author of this work, Fucdide, described the symptoms of this cruel disease very detailed, in particular - a strong cough, vomiting and convulsions. Researchers are still not quite sure what the Athenian plague actually was, but among the main assumptions they figure the cortex, smallpox or some other diseases. The exact strain of the pathogen remains the mystery, but it is definitely known that he inflicted the horrific damage to the Athenian population. It is believed that this pandemic has become one of the reasons for the fall of classical Greece.4 plague Antonina
Starting from 165 AD, the Roman Empire shook the cruel outbreak of the plague, which became the beginning of gloomy events for the state. Today, many scientists believe that it was a pandemic of smallpox. Be that as it may, Bos definitely shake the foundations of the empire and ultimately changed the course of history. Plague Antonina was so terrible that he killed up to 2000 people a day, and as a result, the Roman population was reduced by 7 - 10 percent. The Roman army was especially injured, since the soldiers lived in close camps, and infected each other. This affected the military power of Rome and ultimately contributed to the further fall of the empire. It also changed the density of the population - the communities of people began to live on each other, more disparately. This epidemic paved the path for the German crops, which entrenched in Europe, and also ultimately led to the inevitable decline in the Roman Empire. Due to the lack of physical and economic resources, Rome was in serious misfortune, and all thanks to the plague that ruined his population.
5 Byzantine Empire
As previously thought, the first outbreak of the bubonic plague put on his knees Byzantium (the eastern Roman Empire). It is also often called Justinian Chuma, since it was during the reign of Emperor Justinian I in 541 a pandemic struck Constantinople, the heart of the empire, and then distributed over the entire outskirts of the Roman Empire over the next year. At this time, Justinian really began to restore the Roman Empire and achieved significant success in military campaigns in the West in attempts to return the fame of Rome. But the plague put the cross on his attempts. Like a disease that struck in Europe a century later, it was also caused by trade, and was mainly transmitted through fleas on rats. But she did not stop, limiting only the Eastern Roman Empire. Soon the plague spread further on various feudal states, which settled in Europe after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire. As a result, she killed at least 25 million people.6 Medieval Europe
Then the black death or great plague came. She arose in China in 1334 and, like Plaga Justinian, spread to Europe on trade routes. Disease nothing could stop, and in 1348 he devastated Europe, after as "oblique" passed through the Byzantine Empire. This plague was so cruel and inexorable that at that time destroyed up to 60 percent of all of Europe. This strongly changed the development of Europe, because less and fewer people relied on prayers and began to think about scientific progress. Culture also received a strong impetus to development, and in subsequent years a large part of the great medieval art was created.
7 America.
Then appeared epidemics of diseases in America. Opa first appeared in the colonies of Florida, Carolina and Virginia in 1519 and devastated the local population after it was brought to these edges of Europeans colonisors. In 1633, the disease reached Massachusetts. Due to the fact that the so-called new and old light have been strongly removed from each other, the indigenous Americans did not have immunity to European viruses, such as measles, plague and especially gas. OSAP was particularly cruelly under the new light and was also spread to Central and South America, almost destroying the Aztec Empire. In just 100 years (half the time of Justinian's plague), she destroyed 90 percent of the population of the Aztecs, whose population decreased from 17 million people to just 1.3 million. These diseases killed so many people that by 1900 only 530,000 indigenous Americans remained alive. This makes American epidemics among the worst in the history of mankind.8 Modern Chuma
The so-called modern plague arose in China around 1860, and was another regular brutal epidemic, which could be heard about the history textbooks. She collapsed on Hong Kong in 1894 and raged for another 20 years, with the life of about ten million people. Also, the pandemic spread to India. This time, scientists managed to find the cause of the plague - it was a flea that was transferred rats (usually on ships or trading caravans). People finally learned to treat the disease and even prevent future outbreaks of the plague.
9 Poliomyelitis
The flash of polio was terrible, and today there are still alive people who remember this epidemic. Poliomyelitis is caused by Polyovirus, which aggressively attacks the human nervous system, causing all sorts of terrifying results, and killing many people. Especially the disease struck children under the age of five. The epidemic reached its apogee in the United States in 1952, and the doctors unsuccessfully searched for any method of treating disease. In 1933, 5,000 cases of paralytic poliomyelitis were registered in the United States, and by 1952 this number increased to 59,000, i.e. more than ten times. Finally, poliomyelitis managed to stop when two vaccines against it were developed.
10 HIV
It seems that HIV is the last mass epidemic that has struck the planet Earth (in any case, at this time). The disease has become widespread by the mid-1980s. Back in 1981, disease control centers in the United States began to publish materials and follow the propagating virus, which carried thousands of lives. In 1986, CDC announced that in 1985 AIDS was diagnosed in a larger number of people than in all previous years taken together. It was a quickly spread epidemic, even in the era of digital technologies with widespread radio, television and computers. The disease continued to destroy the world during the 1990s and 2000s. But humanity struggled against this worldwide curse and developed antiretroviral drugs and other methods of treatment, which at least could even restrain the virus. Today, medicines and vaccines against the "plague of the 20th century" are still under development, and billions of dollars have already been spent on it.