Pandemics: past, present, future
Niels Høiby
Abstract
The major epidemic and pandemic diseases that have bothered humans since the Neolithic Age and Bronze Age are surveyed. Many of these pandemics are zoonotic infections, and the mathematical modeling of such infections is illustrated. Plague, cholera, syphilis, influenza, SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and new potential epidemic and pandemic infections and their consequences are described and the background for the spread of acute and chronic infections and the transition to endemic infections is discussed. The way we can prevent and fight pandemics is illustrated from the old and new well-known pandemics. Surprisingly, the political reactions through different periods have not changed much during the centuries.
Topics & Concepts
PandemicPlague (disease)Influenza pandemicCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)CholeraVirologyGeography2019-20 coronavirus outbreakSyphilisHuman mortality from H5N1MedicineInfectious disease (medical specialty)DiseaseOutbreakArchaeologyHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV)PathologyZoonotic diseases and public healthCOVID-19 epidemiological studiesYersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research