Pandemic

From ArticleWorld

A pandemic is the name given to a global epidemic of an infectious disease affecting people. According to the World Health Organization, a disease reaches pandemic proportions when:

1. there is an emergence of a new disease;
2. the agent infects people, causing a serious illness;
3. the agent spreads the disease easily and over a long term.

WHO have devised a preparedness plan defining the stages of a pandemic and making recommendations for national measures which should be taken before and during a pandemic.

History of pandemics

History has recorded the existence of pandemics as far back as 430 BC and through the early hundreds but the first pandemic to catch many people’s attention today is the ‘Black Death’ in the 1300’s. This pandemic resulted in the death of about 20 million Europeans in six years and was caused by the bubonic plague. This type of disease is transferred to humans via the rat flea, a parasite that has fed on a rodent infected by bacteria. The disease affects the blood and then the lungs.

Cholera is another scourge with a long history. The first pandemic was recorded in India in 1816 and the latest in 1961, beginning in Indonesia and reaching the USSR in 1966. Cholera is caused by drinking contaminated water or eating seafood that has not been cooked properly.

Influenza is an infectious disease of the upper airways and lungs caused by a virus. The ‘Spanish flu’ struck in 1918 and in six months caused the death of at least 25 million people worldwide. The ‘Asian flu’ killed between one to four million between 1957 and 1958 and the ‘Hong Kong flu’ resulted in up to two million deaths worldwide between 1968 and 1969.

Pandemics of the future

Most current diseases that have the potential to result in pandemics act so swiftly in killing its victims that they don’t have the chance to pass on the disease, so the outbreak burns itself out. These include Lassa fever and the Ebola virus.

HIV fits into the modern category of a global pandemic in that it is a constantly evolving disease affecting many people though it is confined mainly to particular areas.

Bird flu, or avian influenza, is a cause for concern following the latest outbreak in Turkey. It has the potential to be a source of an influenza pandemic.