List of epidemics

This article is a list of major epidemics.

Worldwide Pandemics

• 165-180: Antonine Plague, perhaps smallpox
• 541: the Plague of Justinian
• 1300s: the Black Death
• 1501-1587: typhus
• 1732-1733: influenza
• 1775-1776: influenza
• 1816-1826: cholera
• 1829-1851: cholera
• 1847-1848: influenza
• 1852-1860: cholera
• 1855-1950s: bubonic plague: Third Pandemic
• 1857-1859: influenza
• 1863-1875: cholera
• 1889-1892: influenza
• 1899-1923: cholera
• 1918-1920: avian flu: Spanish flu: more people were hospitalized in World War I from this epidemic than wounds. Estimates of the dead range from 20 to 40 million worldwide (WHO)
• 1960s: cholera called El Tor
• 1980s to present: AIDS

Regional

Asia

• 1957-1958: avian flu: Asian flu
• 1968-1969: avian flu: Hong Kong flu
• 1997: avian flu - China, Hong Kong
• 2002-2003: SARS

Central and South America

• 1493: influenza - Hispaniola
• 1518: smallpox - Hispaniola
• 1520: smallpox - Mexico
• 1527-1530: smallpox - Peru
• 1530-1531: measles - Mexico, Peru
• 1546: typhus - Mexico, Peru
• 1558-1559: influenza - Mexico, Peru
• early 1600s: malaria
• 1648: yellow fever

Europe

• 1347-1351: Black Death

Egypt

• 1801: plague
• 1831: cholera
• 1834-1836: plague
• 1848, 1865, 1881: cholera
• 1902: cholera
• 1942-1944: falciparum malaria
• 1946: relapsing fever
• 1947: cholera

North America

• 1657: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
• 1687: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
• 1690: yellow fever - New York, New York
• 1713: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
• 1721-1722:smallpox - Boston, Massachusetts
• 1729: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
• 1738: smallpox - South Carolina
• 1739-1740: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
• 1747: measles - Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina
• 1759: measles - North America
• 1761: influenza - North America and West Indies
• 1772: measles - North America
• 1775: unknown cause - North America, particularly in the northeast
• 1783: bilious disorder - Dover, Delaware
• 1788: measles - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York
• 1793: influenza and "putrid fever" - Vermont
• 1793: influenza - Virginia
• 1793: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1793: unknown - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• 1793: unknown - Middletown, Pennsylvania
• 1794: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1796-1797: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1798: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1803: yellow fever - New York
• 1820-1823: fever - United States spreading from the Schuylkill River
• 1831-1832: Asiatic cholera - United States (brought by English immigrants)
• 1832: cholera - New York City and other major cities
• 1833: cholera - Columbus, Ohio
• 1834: cholera - New York City
• 1837: typhus - Philadelphia
• 1841: yellow fever - United States (especially severe in the South)
• 1847: yellow fever New Orleans
• 1848-1849: cholera - North America
• 1849: cholera New York
• 1850: yellow fever - United States
• 1850-1851: influenza - North America
• 1851: cholera Coles County, Illinois, The Great Plains, and Missouri
• 1852: yellow fever - United States (New Orleans-8,000 die in summer)
• 1855: yellow fever - United States
• 1860-1861: smallpox - Pennsylvania
• 1865-1873: smallpox - Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, New Orleans
• 1865-1873: cholera - Baltimore, Maryland, Memphis, Washington, DC
• 1865-1873: recurring epidemics of typhus, typhoid, scarlet fever, and yellow fever
• 1873-1875: influenza - North America and Europe
• 1876: smallpox - Deadwood, South Dakota
• 1878: yellow fever - Memphis, New Orleans
• 1885: typhoid - Plymouth, Pennsylvania
• 1886: yellow fever - Jacksonville, Florida
• 1918-1920: Spanish flu - Fort Riley, Kansas

References

• Kuhnke, Laverne. Lives at Risk: Public Health in Nineteenth-Century Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1990.
• Gallagher, Nancy. Egypt's Other Wars: Epidemics and the Politics of Public Health. Syracuse University Press, c1990. Published by the American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 977-424-295-5

Related pages

• List of historical plagues