What is a pandemic and how does it differ from an epidemic? Why and when do they occur? What can cause them in the modern world? And what does the Pandemic of Lies film say?
Difference
Let's do it in order. In fact, a pandemic is a massive disease in humans. Just like an epidemic. However, they differ in their scale. If an epidemic is called an outbreak of a disease with its prevalence above a certain level for a given region, then it becomes a pandemic when it crosses the borders of the state in which it arose, and when the number of infected people is comparable to the population.
As we can see, this definition is rather vague. And Ebola, for example, spreading to several states, causes concern for the entire world community, but cannot in the full sense of the word be called a pandemic. While the seasonal epidemic of ordinary flu, "walking", say, in Europe, is quite suitable for its definition.
From the history
Where would modern medicine be without microbiology and virology? These related sciences have greatly helped humanity. Apparently, since the advent of intelligent people, our race has suffered from viruses and microorganisms. Evidence of this is the ancient annals and excavations of burials (in the latter, for example, typhoid bacteria are still found). What can I say, if only in the last two thousand years more have died from pandemics caused by terrible diseases of the past than as a result of world wars! According to some reports, up to five hundred million people were the only victims of smallpox. We will briefly describe the most famous pandemics in the history of mankind.
Smallpox
A pandemic (it was she) was rampant everywhere. It was also called natural, or black, smallpox. The disease, from which millions died in the dark, is caused by a virus. On average, mortality from it worldwide reached forty percent. It was widespread everywhere. Often infected with it from pets. Moreover, people suffered from animal disease, and subsequently this helped many to avoid human smallpox. This became the reason for the first vaccinations (or rather, variolations - they vaccinated smallpox pus), although the effect of the latter weakened over the course of life.
Cases of intentional infection of the Indians of the North American continent are known. For the latter, this disease was fatal in 90% of cases. A pandemic is one of those tools that helped immigrants occupy foreign territory. The British specially presented and sold to the Indians smallpox-infected blankets and clothes so that the terrible virus would clean the New World for them.
Thanks to widespread vaccination, the disease was completely defeated already in Soviet times. And smallpox virus is stored in only a few laboratories in the world. In the event of an outbreak, a vaccine can be made from it.
Plague
Acute disease with extremely high mortality. It occurs with damage to internal organs, lymph nodes, sepsis develops. Bubonic and pulmonary plague are known . It occurs in natural foci, its carriers are rodents. Called by a plague wand. With modern methods of treatment, mortality can be reduced to five percent. In ancient times, however, pandemics of this disease were known to kill millions of people. So, Justinian's plague, which appeared in 541–700. in Egypt, killed up to 100 million people around the world. Only in Byzantium, half of the entire population died from it. Another notable pandemic was Black Death. Then (1347–1351) the plague came to Europe from China. Thirty-four million people died from her.
But the story of the plague does not end there. During the so-called Third Pandemic, only six million people died in India alone. But, unlike the first two cases, the disease "traveled" around the world for more than fifty years. It was able to spread across the continents thanks to developed trade relations.
Cholera pandemics
There were several of them. The first pandemic arose in 1816 in Bengal. Countries like India, China and Indonesia were hit hard by it. The number of victims is tens of millions. Then cholera reached Russia. Here, more than two million people died from it. In total, seven cholera pandemics are known. All of them arose in modern times. Until the nineteenth century, cholera was a local disease. Apparently, one of the reasons for its pandemics can also be considered the development of trade relations between countries.
Typhoid: abdominal, rash, and relapsing
The disease is characterized by severe fever, intoxication and mental disorders. The first known pandemic (430-427 BC) occurred during the Peloponnesian War. Then the fourth part of the Athenian army died from it, which undermined the rule of this state in the region. It was possible to find out the cause of this disease only now thanks to the excavation of mass graves. Typhoid bacteria were discovered on the remains of ancient warriors.
There were epidemics in later times. So, for example, during World War I, up to three and a half million people died of typhus in Russia and Poland.
Thunderstorm
The most famous pandemic of the flu so far, the so-called "Spaniard", according to some sources, in the early twentieth century, claimed the lives of up to one hundred million people. A feature of the disease is its rapid spread and low mortality. And only when a person becomes infected with the influenza virus from animals or birds does he become deadly for him. This, apparently, was the case with the "Spanish". The peculiarity of this pandemic was that it circled the globe three times, each time fading and flashing again with a new force. Moreover, his mortality rate also increased sharply. Interesting facts about this are also cited in the documentary Pandemic of Lies.
According to the World Health Organization, only five hundred thousand people a year die from seasonal flu epidemics worldwide. And this despite the fact that there are regular vaccinations of the population. And yet this is not a pandemic. However, scientists do not exclude the occurrence of such, if the virus of the usual seasonal disease mutates and acquires properties that are fatal to humans. So, as it was in cases of epidemics of swine and bird flu. Vaccines from these strains have not yet been proven effective.
Finally
Influenza is, of course, a threat to humanity. But medicine, in principle, is always ready for it. However, a flu pandemic occurs, as usual, all of a sudden. Such terrible diseases of antiquity as the plague, cholera, typhoid and smallpox, fortunately, are practically no longer threatening us. But do not forget about hidden pandemics. They are characterized by a prolonged course of the disease. These are HIV, tuberculosis and, to a lesser extent, malaria. From each of these diseases, millions of people die every year. An effective cure for them has not yet been found. Many now say that Ebola is a pandemic.
So, let us draw a certain conclusion from the foregoing. A pandemic is a disease, the number of cases of which is comparable with the population of the region, while it crosses the borders of several states, and mortality from it is kept at a high level. And, despite all the achievements of modern medicine, the threats of antiquity are replaced by new ones, viruses and bacteria adapt to drugs, and old vaccines become ineffective. Perhaps in this way nature wants to say something to man? ..