it’s hard to believe that something so
tiny could destroy so many in just two
years this terrible play was to claim
over 20 million lives welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top 10 worst
epidemics in history as for adults those
born before 1957 probably got the
measles because there was no vaccine
back then for this list we’re looking at
plagues pandemics and other scourge ah’s
of disease that spread through the human
population like wildfire killing
millions the disease permanently scarred
both his body and his mind we’re not
necessarily ranking them based on how
many people were killed by the place but
those figures definitely play into our
choices there were areas where outbreaks
that occurred where the referee was not
there to transmit but nevertheless they
had a bubonic plague outbreak number 10
the third cholera pandemic by morning my
father was very sick he had diarrhea
that looked like rainwater and poured
out of him the unlucky victims of this
disease suffered through hellish final
days with diarrhea vomiting and
resulting dehydration being the main
symptoms this is the emergence area
where the fish and pasta meet the
passion of severe dehydration severe
dehydration is a medical emergency
with the most deaths of any 19th century
epidemic the third cholera pandemic
began in India and spread across Asia
Europe North America and Africa to
countries like Russia where over 1
million people died so in a matter of
days you might have 10 people infected
then a hundred people than 500 people
one person in five will get severe
diarrhea without quick treatment up to
half of those people might die however
it took an outbreak of this severity for
the cause of cholera to be found in 1854
British doctor Jon Snow discovered that
tainted water was to blame and it was
this breakthrough that eventually
allowed officials to get control of the
cholera pandemic first we made the water
safe
we filtered it through cloth and pulled
it for one minute number nine the Asian
flu pandemic of 1957 we all missed it
the military missed it and the World
Health Organization missed it
though it can be confirmed that this
outbreak of the influenza A virus
started in China the exact origins of
the virus are contested with one popular
theory suggesting that a mutation in
wild ducks joined together with a
typical human strain to create the new
disease one of three flu pandemics
during the 20th century this one was the
least deadly with estimated global death
figures ranging between one and four
million and that’s likely due to the
fact that a vaccine was created in 1957
that helped stem the rash of infections
from this avian flu and 40 million doses
a vaccine by the time that that the end
of the year came number 8 the world war
1 typhus epidemic food was growing ever
more scarce
the queues outside the bread shop
stretched right down the length of the
street taking place during a time of
incredible strife this typhus outbreak
was another devastating result of World
War one a disease caused by bacteria
whose symptoms include severe back pain
and delirium this particular outbreak
originated with lice the perfect setup
for epidemic and then it’s gone typhus
it was for this reason that delousing
stations for the soldiers had been set
up on the Western Front which helped
keep those troops healthy next the
40,000 Italians dwelling in the
jam-packed air-raid shelters were
delouse however the Eastern Front was
not so lucky
by the time of its peak between 25 and
30 million cases were reported across
Soviet regions with 3 million Russians
and even more poles and Romanians dying
from infection in over 3 brutal years 2
million three hundred thousand Russian
a further five million injured number
seven cocoa literally the Aztecs
crowning achievement was a gleaming
capital city that astonished European
explorers called the Venice of the new
world
this disease is categorized in a group
of ailments called viral hemorrhagic
fever a family of illnesses that
continues to attack humanity with
viruses like Ebola it is in Monrovia
slums that Ebola is spreading fastest
affecting the Aztecs living in the
region that would become Mexico twice in
less than half a century cocoa literally
decimated the population infecting a
group that was already reeling from
other diseases brought to their shores
by Spanish conquerors and causing their
numbers to dwindle by millions in less
than a century with symptoms that
included a black tongue dysentery severe
abdominal pain and bleeding from your
nose eyes and mouth this Ebola like
epidemic annihilated what was once a
thriving civilization the Aztec empire
had vanished and with it a legacy of
astonishing engineering achievements
number six the plague of Justinian this
turns out to have been one of the most
violent pandemics in history a
forebearer of a pandemic that will be
featured later on this list this plague
is believed to have been brought to the
Byzantine Empire and Constantinople
specifically by infected rats traveling
from Egypt on grain boats some citizens
blamed the plague on the Empress
Theodora saying it was a punishment from
God for her sexual promiscuity
an event that likely changed the course
of European and Christian history the
plague of Justinian left the Byzantine
Empire short of healthy citizens who
could act as laborers or militaries
meaning the Empire was severely weakened
symptoms would begin with a sudden fever
followed by chills vomiting and an
increased sensitivity to light with some
suggesting that at its peak the
mortality rate of this plague took 5,000
lives each day the first wave of this
disease eradicated 40% of Constantinople
population and continued to kill through
several more waves in the years that
followed if the future looked bleak for
Europe before now it looked pitch-black
number 5 the Antonine plague the
earliest pandemic on this list this
scourge came to the roman empire by way
of soldiers returning from fighting in
western asia however what form it took
is up for debate with some thinking
smallpox or measles were to blame
symptoms start out with coughing runny
nose and a high fever of 104 degrees the
rash appears three to five days later
though it wasn’t as deadly as Justinian
with only 2,000 dying in Rome per day at
its pinnacle and likely 5 million
succumbing to the disease in total the
fact that it most probably claimed the
lives of two Roman emperors Lucas way
rose and Marcus Aurelius and Tony noose
served to plunge the land into fear and
chaos and likely changed the course of
history and the emperor reaps the
rewards
number four the third plague pandemic
every rat captured was examined for
signs of disease anyone who brought in a
rat dead or alive was paid ten cents
the third recorded iteration of the
bubonic plague after the plague of
Justinian and the Black Death this
plague ravaged the world for over a
century in 1900 San Francisco suffered a
brief outbreak of plague brought in by
rats on a boat from the Far East plague
was now lurking in the sewers beneath
the city
beginning with diseased rodents in
China’s Yunnan Province in the 1850s and
spreading to all populated areas of the
globe thanks to the world’s newly
established interconnection this
pandemic killed 12 million and that was
just in China and India the bacillus
spread quickly as it moved along trade
routes in the blood of infected rats
with it came the plane finally ending in
1959 when death rates from the disease
dropped to roughly 200 according to the
World Health Organization this third
plague pandemic allowed doctors and
scientists to study the infection and
test new treatments fortunately that
helped stave off another coming of the
plague by the middle of the 20th century
the Black Death had been named and tamed
plague could be treated with antibiotics
rats could be exterminated
number three hiv/aids over fifty
thousand men women and children now
carry the AIDS virus but in three years
nearly two thousand of us will be dead
theorized to have spread from primates
to humans sometime in the 20th century
there was a case of an HIV infected
human in the Congo in 1959 but it wasn’t
until the early 1980s that the disease
was detected and named in the United
States and the epidemic known as AIDS
truly began to spread and define the
subsequent decade out there swimming
playing tennis
you know buffed coming in and weird I
I mean we’re dead ten days later despite
early ignorant that the disease was
exclusive to homosexual males and
intravenous drug users eight attacked
those who didn’t take precautions
indiscriminately and without mercy a
positive diagnosis is still a life
altering experience in Cambodia people
living with HIV are often disowned by
friends family and the community where
they live this humiliation can be
unbearable fortunately after over 30
years and over 36 million deaths
scientists have been making headway in
terms of treatments and possible
vaccines
although sub-saharan Africa is still
badly affected in Africa there’s a much
higher prevalence of HIV so your
probability of it being exposed to
someone who’s infected is much greater
number two the 1918 flu pandemic it was
the worst epidemic this country has ever
known various strains of the influenza
virus have wreaked havoc on the world
again and again but there are two things
that ensured this outbreaks inclusion it
afflicted 500 million people killing
between 50 and 100 million and it mainly
killed healthy adults influenza gave you
such high fever mother told me that I
saw her black hair was a cat and I was
afraid of it was a delirium from the
tired paper most flu viruses are
dangerous for the very young the very
old and the already weakened but
this strain of the h1n1 virus caused the
immune systems of its victims to jump
into overdrive and attack and the
healthier the immune system the more
violent the result and within a matter
of months as many as 15 million would be
dead affecting countries across the
globe as isolated as the Pacific Islands
or the Arctic the outbreak nicknamed the
Spanish flu has been labeled one of
history’s worst natural disasters we
still know much less than we’d like
about influenza but the experiences of
the individuals who endured the pandemic
of 1918 and the research into that
pandemic continue to contribute to our
understanding of the disease before we
reveal our top pick here is an honorable
or in this case dishonorable mention the
United Nations based Agency raised its
pandemic flu alert to phase six on a six
point scale indicating the first flu
pandemic since 1968 is underway number
one the Black Death
few who caught the disease ever
recovered so rapidly did it spread but
it seemed one learn could infect the
whole world peaking in the 14th century
but affecting Europe until the 17th the
Black Death is thought to have killed
between 75 and 200 million people which
represented roughly 30 to 60 percent of
Europe’s entire population at the time
in just two years it had swept across
Western Europe spread north over to
England and then finally to Scandinavia
suspected by many to be a version of the
bubonic plague that originated in
infected rodents this disease was most
easily recognized by the tumors that
covered victims bodies with so many
dying so rapidly bodies littered the
streets as cemeteries were at capacity
while some governments attempted
quarantines and some citizens turned to
God for aid there was very little that
could be done to stop this infection
families were torn apart villages
deserted business collapsed
States bankrupted by loss of taxes that
doesn’t even touch upon the horror of
witnessing your loved ones suffering or
the fear that you might be next after
the Black Death the plague returned to
haunt Europe every few decades until the
mid 17th century though never again with
the ferocity of that first outfit do you
agree with our list what do you think
was the worst pandemic in the world’s
history for more historic top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com I told him to always
wash his hands with soap and safe water
after going to the toilet
tiny could destroy so many in just two
years this terrible play was to claim
over 20 million lives welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top 10 worst
epidemics in history as for adults those
born before 1957 probably got the
measles because there was no vaccine
back then for this list we’re looking at
plagues pandemics and other scourge ah’s
of disease that spread through the human
population like wildfire killing
millions the disease permanently scarred
both his body and his mind we’re not
necessarily ranking them based on how
many people were killed by the place but
those figures definitely play into our
choices there were areas where outbreaks
that occurred where the referee was not
there to transmit but nevertheless they
had a bubonic plague outbreak number 10
the third cholera pandemic by morning my
father was very sick he had diarrhea
that looked like rainwater and poured
out of him the unlucky victims of this
disease suffered through hellish final
days with diarrhea vomiting and
resulting dehydration being the main
symptoms this is the emergence area
where the fish and pasta meet the
passion of severe dehydration severe
dehydration is a medical emergency
with the most deaths of any 19th century
epidemic the third cholera pandemic
began in India and spread across Asia
Europe North America and Africa to
countries like Russia where over 1
million people died so in a matter of
days you might have 10 people infected
then a hundred people than 500 people
one person in five will get severe
diarrhea without quick treatment up to
half of those people might die however
it took an outbreak of this severity for
the cause of cholera to be found in 1854
British doctor Jon Snow discovered that
tainted water was to blame and it was
this breakthrough that eventually
allowed officials to get control of the
cholera pandemic first we made the water
safe
we filtered it through cloth and pulled
it for one minute number nine the Asian
flu pandemic of 1957 we all missed it
the military missed it and the World
Health Organization missed it
though it can be confirmed that this
outbreak of the influenza A virus
started in China the exact origins of
the virus are contested with one popular
theory suggesting that a mutation in
wild ducks joined together with a
typical human strain to create the new
disease one of three flu pandemics
during the 20th century this one was the
least deadly with estimated global death
figures ranging between one and four
million and that’s likely due to the
fact that a vaccine was created in 1957
that helped stem the rash of infections
from this avian flu and 40 million doses
a vaccine by the time that that the end
of the year came number 8 the world war
1 typhus epidemic food was growing ever
more scarce
the queues outside the bread shop
stretched right down the length of the
street taking place during a time of
incredible strife this typhus outbreak
was another devastating result of World
War one a disease caused by bacteria
whose symptoms include severe back pain
and delirium this particular outbreak
originated with lice the perfect setup
for epidemic and then it’s gone typhus
it was for this reason that delousing
stations for the soldiers had been set
up on the Western Front which helped
keep those troops healthy next the
40,000 Italians dwelling in the
jam-packed air-raid shelters were
delouse however the Eastern Front was
not so lucky
by the time of its peak between 25 and
30 million cases were reported across
Soviet regions with 3 million Russians
and even more poles and Romanians dying
from infection in over 3 brutal years 2
million three hundred thousand Russian
a further five million injured number
seven cocoa literally the Aztecs
crowning achievement was a gleaming
capital city that astonished European
explorers called the Venice of the new
world
this disease is categorized in a group
of ailments called viral hemorrhagic
fever a family of illnesses that
continues to attack humanity with
viruses like Ebola it is in Monrovia
slums that Ebola is spreading fastest
affecting the Aztecs living in the
region that would become Mexico twice in
less than half a century cocoa literally
decimated the population infecting a
group that was already reeling from
other diseases brought to their shores
by Spanish conquerors and causing their
numbers to dwindle by millions in less
than a century with symptoms that
included a black tongue dysentery severe
abdominal pain and bleeding from your
nose eyes and mouth this Ebola like
epidemic annihilated what was once a
thriving civilization the Aztec empire
had vanished and with it a legacy of
astonishing engineering achievements
number six the plague of Justinian this
turns out to have been one of the most
violent pandemics in history a
forebearer of a pandemic that will be
featured later on this list this plague
is believed to have been brought to the
Byzantine Empire and Constantinople
specifically by infected rats traveling
from Egypt on grain boats some citizens
blamed the plague on the Empress
Theodora saying it was a punishment from
God for her sexual promiscuity
an event that likely changed the course
of European and Christian history the
plague of Justinian left the Byzantine
Empire short of healthy citizens who
could act as laborers or militaries
meaning the Empire was severely weakened
symptoms would begin with a sudden fever
followed by chills vomiting and an
increased sensitivity to light with some
suggesting that at its peak the
mortality rate of this plague took 5,000
lives each day the first wave of this
disease eradicated 40% of Constantinople
population and continued to kill through
several more waves in the years that
followed if the future looked bleak for
Europe before now it looked pitch-black
number 5 the Antonine plague the
earliest pandemic on this list this
scourge came to the roman empire by way
of soldiers returning from fighting in
western asia however what form it took
is up for debate with some thinking
smallpox or measles were to blame
symptoms start out with coughing runny
nose and a high fever of 104 degrees the
rash appears three to five days later
though it wasn’t as deadly as Justinian
with only 2,000 dying in Rome per day at
its pinnacle and likely 5 million
succumbing to the disease in total the
fact that it most probably claimed the
lives of two Roman emperors Lucas way
rose and Marcus Aurelius and Tony noose
served to plunge the land into fear and
chaos and likely changed the course of
history and the emperor reaps the
rewards
number four the third plague pandemic
every rat captured was examined for
signs of disease anyone who brought in a
rat dead or alive was paid ten cents
the third recorded iteration of the
bubonic plague after the plague of
Justinian and the Black Death this
plague ravaged the world for over a
century in 1900 San Francisco suffered a
brief outbreak of plague brought in by
rats on a boat from the Far East plague
was now lurking in the sewers beneath
the city
beginning with diseased rodents in
China’s Yunnan Province in the 1850s and
spreading to all populated areas of the
globe thanks to the world’s newly
established interconnection this
pandemic killed 12 million and that was
just in China and India the bacillus
spread quickly as it moved along trade
routes in the blood of infected rats
with it came the plane finally ending in
1959 when death rates from the disease
dropped to roughly 200 according to the
World Health Organization this third
plague pandemic allowed doctors and
scientists to study the infection and
test new treatments fortunately that
helped stave off another coming of the
plague by the middle of the 20th century
the Black Death had been named and tamed
plague could be treated with antibiotics
rats could be exterminated
number three hiv/aids over fifty
thousand men women and children now
carry the AIDS virus but in three years
nearly two thousand of us will be dead
theorized to have spread from primates
to humans sometime in the 20th century
there was a case of an HIV infected
human in the Congo in 1959 but it wasn’t
until the early 1980s that the disease
was detected and named in the United
States and the epidemic known as AIDS
truly began to spread and define the
subsequent decade out there swimming
playing tennis
you know buffed coming in and weird I
I mean we’re dead ten days later despite
early ignorant that the disease was
exclusive to homosexual males and
intravenous drug users eight attacked
those who didn’t take precautions
indiscriminately and without mercy a
positive diagnosis is still a life
altering experience in Cambodia people
living with HIV are often disowned by
friends family and the community where
they live this humiliation can be
unbearable fortunately after over 30
years and over 36 million deaths
scientists have been making headway in
terms of treatments and possible
vaccines
although sub-saharan Africa is still
badly affected in Africa there’s a much
higher prevalence of HIV so your
probability of it being exposed to
someone who’s infected is much greater
number two the 1918 flu pandemic it was
the worst epidemic this country has ever
known various strains of the influenza
virus have wreaked havoc on the world
again and again but there are two things
that ensured this outbreaks inclusion it
afflicted 500 million people killing
between 50 and 100 million and it mainly
killed healthy adults influenza gave you
such high fever mother told me that I
saw her black hair was a cat and I was
afraid of it was a delirium from the
tired paper most flu viruses are
dangerous for the very young the very
old and the already weakened but
this strain of the h1n1 virus caused the
immune systems of its victims to jump
into overdrive and attack and the
healthier the immune system the more
violent the result and within a matter
of months as many as 15 million would be
dead affecting countries across the
globe as isolated as the Pacific Islands
or the Arctic the outbreak nicknamed the
Spanish flu has been labeled one of
history’s worst natural disasters we
still know much less than we’d like
about influenza but the experiences of
the individuals who endured the pandemic
of 1918 and the research into that
pandemic continue to contribute to our
understanding of the disease before we
reveal our top pick here is an honorable
or in this case dishonorable mention the
United Nations based Agency raised its
pandemic flu alert to phase six on a six
point scale indicating the first flu
pandemic since 1968 is underway number
one the Black Death
few who caught the disease ever
recovered so rapidly did it spread but
it seemed one learn could infect the
whole world peaking in the 14th century
but affecting Europe until the 17th the
Black Death is thought to have killed
between 75 and 200 million people which
represented roughly 30 to 60 percent of
Europe’s entire population at the time
in just two years it had swept across
Western Europe spread north over to
England and then finally to Scandinavia
suspected by many to be a version of the
bubonic plague that originated in
infected rodents this disease was most
easily recognized by the tumors that
covered victims bodies with so many
dying so rapidly bodies littered the
streets as cemeteries were at capacity
while some governments attempted
quarantines and some citizens turned to
God for aid there was very little that
could be done to stop this infection
families were torn apart villages
deserted business collapsed
States bankrupted by loss of taxes that
doesn’t even touch upon the horror of
witnessing your loved ones suffering or
the fear that you might be next after
the Black Death the plague returned to
haunt Europe every few decades until the
mid 17th century though never again with
the ferocity of that first outfit do you
agree with our list what do you think
was the worst pandemic in the world’s
history for more historic top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com I told him to always
wash his hands with soap and safe water
after going to the toilet
Please follow and like us: