Pandemics Throughout the History

Abstract

As we move amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we have witnessed tremendous distress, death, and turmoil of everyday life for more than one year now. However, they are not modern phenomena; deadly pandemics have happened throughout recorded history. Pandemics such as the plague, Spanish Flu, HIV, and Ebola caused deaths, destruction of political regimes, as well as financial and psychosocial burdens. However, they sometimes resulted in scientific discoveries. Understanding the mechanism of the emergence of these pandemics is crucial to control any spreading pandemic and prevent the emergence of a potential new one. Public health agencies need to work on improving the countries' pandemic preparedness to prevent any future pandemics. The review article aims to shed light on some of the deadliest pandemics throughout history, information of critical importance for clinicians and researchers.

Gold, bonds, and epidemics: A safe haven study

“…The most considerable spread difference between U.S./Japan bonds and gold is visible in the Swine Flu sample. This can be explained by the nature of the epidemic, as Swine Flu affected Africa and South East Asia hardest ( Sampath et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, all other epidemics showed a remarkably similar movement in the correlation plots other than Swine Flu.…”

Preventive Measures against Pandemics from the Beginning of Civilization to Nowadays—How Everything Has Remained the Same over the Millennia

“…The plague originated in early May 430 BCE, with a second wave in the summer of 428 BCE and a third in the winter of 427–426 BCE, and spared no segment of the population, including the statesman Pericles and Thucydides himself. The Plague of Athens killed between 75,000 and 100,000 people, ~25% of the population of Athens (429 BCE) ( Table 1 and Table 2 and Figure 1 ) [ 16 , 30 ].…”

“…The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, spread from the Caspian Sea by the town of Caffa, now Feodosia, a Genoese colony, to almost all European countries, causing the death of one-third of the European population [ 36 ] over the next few years, and persisted in Europe until 1750. Following traditional beliefs promoted by Hippocrates and Galen, the poisoned air (“miasma”) was believed to be the causative agent of the epidemics; as already mentioned, an association between the plague and dead rats was not observed until the beginning of the 20th century [ 30 ]. The name Black Death derives from a typical symptom of the disease, called acral necrosis, of black color due to subdermal hemorrhages.…”

Emerging market dynamics in H1N1 and COVID-19 pandemics

“…In the first 20 years of the 21st century, we have experienced four pandemics ( Huremović, 2019 , Sampath et al, 2021 ) but it was the aggressive spread of COVID-19 that increased interest in studying the consequences of these epidemic events ( Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 ), including those felt in the financial markets ( Chin et al, 2020 , Ma et al, 2020 , Chen et al, 2007 ). Liu et al (2020) point out that, with the spread of COVID-19, stock markets are increasingly risky, highly volatile and unpredictable ( Chen et al, 2007 , Ichev and Marinč, 2018 ).…”