DEADLY DISEASES
As China deals with a mystery new virus MARION McMULLEN looks at some of history’s biggest outbreaks
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DEATHS from a new strain of coronavirus, which causes severe lung disease, have been reported from Chinese city Wuhan and it has been confirmed the infection could be transmitted from human to human. There have been more than 400 confirmed cases in China and nine deaths, but experts believe at least 2,000 people may have been infected. The first case outside of China was confirmed in Washington, USA on Tuesday.
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THE new virus is similar to the SARS bug that killed around 774 people in the 2000s across mostly Asian countries. SARS – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – is a highly contagious form of pneumonia and is thought to have originated in China. It is thought the strain mutated from small animals to infect humans.
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THE Swine Flu Pandemic first struck in 2009 and led to a global outbreak of the illness. It was initially identified in Mexico and was similar to a flu virus that affects pigs. It spread rapidly from country to country, but most reported cases in the
UK were relatively mild.
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THE Ebola outbreak started in 2014 and claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people in West Africa. It was the largest Ebola epidemic in history and led to deaths in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. The first victim was an 18-month-old boy who is believed to have been infected by bats.
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IRISH cook Mary Mallon was dubbed Typhoid Mary in 1907 when she was found to be America’s first known carrier of typhoid. More than 50 people became infected after eating food she had prepared in households across New York State. Mary had to be isolated on North Brother Island to prevent the spread of infection.
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THE Spanish Flu struck in 1918 and infected a third of the world’s population. British prime minister David Lloyd George, Mickey Mouse creator Walt Disney and the Scream artist Edvard Munch were among the few who fell ill but survived. One bizarre remedy recommended stripping off and taking a walk in the open air while naked.
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FLEAS on rats brought the Black Death to Europe in 1347. Three years later, the population was so devastated by the disease that it took 400 years to return to 1346 levels. It is reckoned up to
60 per cent of the continent’s entire population was wiped out.
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PEOPLE turned to crazy cures in the Middle Ages to try and treat the Bubonic Plague. Treatments included shaving the rear of a live chicken and putting it on the sores. It was also said plague sores could be cured by pressing half a freshly killed pigeon onto the affected areas.
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THE dancing plague of 1518 is said to have infected 400 people in Strasbourg and many literally danced themselves to death. City officials feared they were cursed and banned dancing and music and fined anyone who broke the new regulations. They put red shoes on the sufferers and took them to the shrine of Saint Vitus. The dancing eventually stopped.
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SMALLPOX was one of the ancient world’s deadliest killers. It spread quickly through the Aztec population in the 16th century following the arrival of Spanish explorers. The local population had no immunity to the disease and around a quarter of the population was wiped out.
The Inca civilisation also fell prey to the disease and Emperor Huayna Capac was among those who died.