An epidemic is a massive spread in space and time of an infectious disease, the level of which is several times higher than the statistical indicator recorded in the affected area. Many people become victims of the disease; on a large scale, the effect of the infection has no boundaries and covers both small areas and entire countries. Each outbreak can be fundamentally different from the previous ones and is accompanied by symptoms that depend on a number of factors. This climate, weather conditions, atmospheric pressure, geographical location, social and hygienic conditions. A virus epidemic is characterized by a continuous process of transmission of an infectious agent from one person to another, which entails a continuous chain of sequentially developing infectious conditions.
Diseases escalating into epidemics
The most dangerous diseases taking the form of an epidemic are:
- Plague.
- Cholera.
- Flu.
- Anthrax.
- Typhoid
- Ebola fever.
Black Death - The Plague
The plague (aka “black death”) is a terrible disease that destroyed entire cities, wiped out villages and villages from the face of the Earth. The first mention of the disease was recorded in the VI century: a gloomy cloud enveloped the lands of the East Roman Empire, killing hundreds of thousands of inhabitants and their ruler Justinian. Coming from Egypt and spreading in the western and eastern directions - along the coast of Africa towards Alexandria and through Syria and Palestine in the possession of West Asia - the plague from 532 to 580 hit many countries. The "black death" made its way through trade routes along the coasts of the sea, unceremoniously sneaking into the depths of the continents.
The
plague epidemic reached its peak by penetrating Greece and Turkey in 541-542, and then into the territory of present-day Italy, France and Germany. At that time, the population of the Eastern Roman Empire was reduced by half. Each breath, a slight fever, the slightest malaise was dangerous and did not guarantee a person's awakening in the morning.
The plague epidemic repeated its second terrible campaign in the 14th century, affecting all European states. Five centuries of the reign of the disease claimed the lives of approximately 40 million people. The reasons for the unhindered spread of the infection were the lack of simple hygiene skills, dirt and universal poverty. Before the disease, both the doctors and the drugs prescribed by them were powerless. Territory was sorely lacking for the burial of dead bodies, so they dug huge pits, which were filled with hundreds of corpses. How many strong men, attractive women, lovely babies ruthless death mowed, breaking the chains of hundreds of generations.
After unsuccessful attempts, the doctors realized that it was necessary to use the isolation of sick people from healthy people. Then quarantine was invented, which became the first barrier to the fight against infection.
Special houses were built in which patients were held for 40 days under a strict ban on going out. Arriving
sea transport was also ordered to stand on the roads for 40 days without leaving the port.
The third wave of the disease epidemic went through China at the end of the 19th century, taking about 174 thousand people with it in 6 months. In 1896, India was defeated, having lost more than 12 million people in that terrible period. Followed by South Africa, South and North America. The carriers of the Chinese plague, which was bubonic, were ship and port rats. At the insistence of quarantine doctors, to prevent the mass migration of rodents to shore, mooring ropes were equipped with metal disks.
A terrible disease has not spared Russia. In the XIII-XIV centuries, the cities of Glukhov and Belozersk died out completely, in Smolensk 5 residents managed to escape. Two terrible years in the Pskov and Novgorod provinces claimed the lives of 250 thousand people.
Although the incidence of plague went sharply to decline in the 30s of the last century, it periodically reminds of itself. From 1989 to 2003, 38 thousand cases of plague were recorded in the countries of America, Asia, and Africa. In 8 countries (China, Mongolia, Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, Madagascar, Peru, and the USA), the epidemic is annual outbreaks that recur at regular intervals.
Signs of Plague Infection
Symptoms
- General serious condition.
- The development of the inflammatory process in the lungs, lymph nodes and other organs.
- High temperature - up to 39-40 0 .
- Strong headache.
- Frequent nausea and vomiting.
- Dizziness.
- Insomnia.
- Hallucinations.
Forms of plague
In addition to the above symptoms, with a skin-bubonic form of the disease, a red speck appears at the site of virus penetration, turning into a vesicle filled with purulent-bloody contents.
The pustule (vesicle) soon bursts, forming an ulcer. An inflammatory process develops with the formation of buboes in the lymph nodes close to the place of penetration of plague microbes.
The pulmonary form of the disease is characterized by pneumonia (plague pneumonia), accompanied by a feeling of lack of air, cough, sputum production with a blood admixture.
The intestinal stage is accompanied by profuse diarrhea, often with an admixture of mucus and blood in the feces.
The septic appearance of the plague is accompanied by significant hemorrhages in the skin and mucous membranes. It proceeds severely and often has a fatal nature, manifested from general intoxication of the body and damage to internal organs on the 2nd - 3rd day (with the pulmonary form) and 5-6th day (with the bubonic form). If untreated, the death rate is 99.9%.
Treatment
Treatment is carried out exclusively in special hospitals. If this disease is suspected, isolation of the patient, disinfection, disinsection and deratization of the room and all things with which the patient had contact are urgently needed. Quarantine is imposed on the locality where the disease was detected, active vaccination and emergency chemoprophylaxis are carried out.
Influenza - Italian Fever
The diagnosis of influenza has long been familiar to the population. High fever, sore throat, runny nose - all this is not considered abnormally scary and is treated with medication and bed rest. It was completely different a hundred years ago, when about 40 million lives died from this disease.
Influenza is first mentioned at the time of the great physician of antiquity of Hippocrates. The fever in patients, headaches and muscle pains, as well as high infectiousness brought down hundreds of people from their feet in a short period, escalating into epidemics, the largest of which covered entire countries and continents.
In the Middle Ages, outbreaks of influenza infection were not uncommon and were called “Italian fever”, as patients mistakenly believed that sunny Italy was the source of infection. The treatment, consisting of plentiful drinking, infusions of medicinal herbs and bee honey, did not help much, and the doctors could not think of anything else to save the patients. And among the people, the flu epidemic was considered the punishment of God for committed sins, and people earnestly prayed to the Almighty in the hope that the disease would bypass their home.
Until the sixteenth century, an epidemic was an infection without a name, since doctors could not figure out the cause of its appearance. According to one hypothesis, it arose as a result of alignment of celestial bodies in a special sequence. This gave it its original name - “influenza”, which is translated from Italian as “influence, influence”. The second hypothesis is less poetic. The pattern of the occurrence of an infectious disease was identified with the onset of the winter months, determining the relationship of the disease with the emerging hypothermia.
The modern name “flu” arose three centuries later, and translated from French and German means “grab”, determining the suddenness of its appearance: a person is caught in the arms of a contagious infection in almost a few hours.
The version has the right to exist that breaks between epidemics are carried out by the influenza virus in organisms of birds and animals. Doctors of the whole planet are in a state of tension and constant readiness for the next wave of the flu epidemic, which each time visits humanity in a modified state.
Modern virus - Ebola
At present, mankind is faced with a new disease - Ebola fever, against which no means of struggle have yet been invented, since the new epidemic is a completely unfamiliar type of disease. Beginning in February 2014 in Guinea, the infection spread to Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali, USA and Spain.
The epidemic, the reasons for which is unsanitary conditions, poor hygiene, as well as religious beliefs, boldly overcomes kilometers of territories. On hand is the rapid spread of contagious infection - the traditions of the local population, in which they kiss the deceased at parting, wash their dead body, and bury them near water, which leads to a continuous chain of infection of other people.
Epidemic Prevention
Any outbreak of an epidemic of disease does not just happen and is the result of the relationship between man and nature.
Therefore, in order to avoid lightning spread of new infections around the world, the following preventive measures are required:
- cleaning of the territory, sewerage, water supply;
- improving the health culture of the population;
- compliance with personal hygiene ;
- proper processing and storage of products;
- restriction of social activity of bacillicarriers.