10 diseases once terrified humans

The European population was halved by the plague, while the Spanish flu killed about 20 to 100 million people around the world earlier in the century.

>>>5 most terrifying 'cross-century' epidemics

Plague

Swollen lymph glands, skin turning from red to black, heavy breathing, limb pain, vomiting blood are some symptoms of bubonic plague. This deadly disease causes more than 200 million deaths. The most famous and terrible plague called 'Black Death' took place in Europe in the 14th century, causing the population of this continent to halve. Normally, patients get bubonic plague through the bite of an infected flea. Currently, many types of plague prevention vaccines have been born, and unfortunate people will also be cured.

About half of the European population died of plague in the 14th century. (Photo: blogspot.com)

Rash fever

The name "typhus" comes from the Greek word Typhus (meaning smog), to describe the mental state of the sick person. The culprit causing typhus is the Rickettsiae virus . The rash broke out for the first time in the period when the Spanish army besieged Granada in 1489. Symptoms included fever and red rashes in the arms, back, and chest leading to delirium, necrosis and The flesh starts to rot. During the siege, in addition to 3,000 killed soldiers during the fighting, Spain lost 1,700 soldiers because of the disease itself. The outbreak of typhus spread to Europe from the 16th to the 19th century and raged throughout the English Civil War, the 30-year war and Napoleon's wars. During the 30-year war, historians estimate that 8 million Germans died from plague and typhus. During Napoleon's expedition to Russia in 1812, the number of French soldiers killed by typhus was more than the number of soldiers killed by Russian weapons.

Ebola haemorrhagic fever

People call Ebola hemorrhagic fever after the Ebola river - the origin of the disease. The pathogenic viruses are similar in shape to the Marburg virus, also belonging to the Filoviridae family and all cause similar symptoms. Ebola disease first appeared in 1976 in Zaire. People began to pay more attention to it after the epidemic in Reston, Virginia, USA in 1989. The virus caused the disease to spread through human body fluids. However, they can also be transmitted by mouth and eye conjunctiva. In the early stages, Ebola is not highly infectious. As the disease progresses, body fluids are released when people have diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. Large-scale dengue outbreaks often occur in remote and poor areas, due to lack of equipment, poor sanitation and poor health systems.

Fever

Symptoms of malaria include anemia, fever, colds, even coma or death. The disease is easily spread from patients to healthy people by Anopheles mosquito. Every year, about 400 million people get malaria and millions die. This is one of the most common and serious infectious diseases. Currently, medicine has no clinical vaccine or specific treatment for this dangerous disease.

Cholera

The person with the most severe cholera is likely to die. If left untreated within 3 hours, the patient may die. The main symptoms of cholera include: diarrhea, lightheadedness, leg cramps, nausea and dry skin. The cholera outbreak first broke out in Bengal and spread to India, China, Indonesia and the Caspian Sea. In India alone, after its end in 1826, the disease claimed the lives of more than 15 million people. The treatment for cholera is oral rehydration or antibiotics.

Smallpox

Smallpox has affected human life since 10,000 BC. In the 18th century, about 40,000 people in England died each year from smallpox. The most obvious symptom of the disease is pimples that appear and spread throughout the body, along with other signs such as vomiting, back pain, fever and headache. Egyptian mummy is evidence that early disease appears very early. It is thought that Egyptian merchants brought germs to India, where the disease raged for 2,000 years. After many vaccination campaigns from the 19th to the 20th century, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the world destroyed smallpox in December 1979. So far, smallpox is one of two infectious diseases that mankind has wiped out.

Spanish flu

The 1918 flu pandemic (the common name is Spanish flu) is a contagious epidemic spread to almost every region of the world. Influenza A / H1N1 virus is the cause of disease. While other pandemics often attack elderly, sick people, most victims of the Spanish flu are young and healthy people. The flu lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, spreading to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that 20 to 100 million people have died from this disease worldwide, equivalent to approximately one-third of the European population.

Yellow fever

Symptoms of yellow fever include fever, colds, bradycardia, vomiting, and constipation. WHO estimates that each year, about 30,000 people die from yellow fever due to a lack of vaccine. A terrible yellow fever epidemic took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 1793, killing 10,000 lives.

TB

People pay much attention to tuberculosis in the 19th and early 20th centuries and regard it as a disease of the urban poor. In 1815, about a quarter of the British population died of tuberculosis. In 1918, about 1/6 of the French population died of the disease. In the early 20th century, TB continued to rob the lives of 100 million people. It is a disease that affects the lungs with symptoms such as cough, weight loss, night sweats and sputum of bloody sputum.

Disabled

Polio is highly contagious, affecting the central nervous system and spine, and even paralyzing the body. Signs include: pain in the head, neck, back, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever and irritability. After an outbreak of polio that paralyzed 20,000 children and robbed the lives of more than 3,000 children in 1952, doctors successfully studied the vaccine to prevent this dangerous disease.