Athens plague
Up to now, no one knows where the plague in Athens, which happened more than 2400 years ago, came from, but what is certain is that the disease almost destroyed the whole city. The plague swept the whole city like a demon, and any medicine taken orally or externally was of no help. Finally, the doctor was infected and fell ill. Faced with panic, people began to choose an indulgent life. Nothing can make them escape from their real fears like immediate enjoyment, until a doctor found that fire could prevent epidemics and thus saved Athens.
More than 2000 years have passed, and the horror of a well-built civilized city-state being destroyed by the plague is still shocking. The disaster was recorded by a surviving scholar named Thucydides. This is where the chronicle of human plague began.
flu
As early as 4 12 BC in ancient Greece, Hippocrates had described diseases similar to influenza. 19th century, Haitz, a German medical geographer, described in detail the influenza-like outbreaks since 1 173. The first epidemic apparently caused by influenza occurred in Britain in 15 10.
19 18, influenza swept the world again, killing 40 million people. It is said that the flu originated in the United States, but no one expected that the common cold would become a murderous monster. That year, nearly 65,438+0/4 Americans got the flu and more than 500,000 people died.
There have been four influenza pandemics in the modern world, namely 1957 in Asia, 1968 in Hong Kong, 1977 in Russia and influenza A in 2009 (H 1N 1).
pestis
The first plague epidemic in history occurred in the 6th century, originated in the Middle East, and its epidemic center was on the Mediterranean coast. In 542 AD, it passed through Port Said in southern Egypt and spread to North Africa and Europe along the land and sea trade routes, affecting almost all countries at that time. The epidemic lasted for 50 or 60 years, and the total death toll was nearly 1 100 million.
The second epidemic occurred in the14th century and lasted for nearly 300 years, covering Eurasia and the north coast of Africa, especially Europe. By August of 1665, 2,000 people died every week, and 8,000 people died a month later. It was not until a few months later that a big fire (known as the "London Fire" in history) destroyed most buildings in London that the plague epidemic subsided.
The third plague epidemic began in 1894 and reached its peak in 1930s, involving more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe, America and Africa, with the death toll exceeding10 million. The epidemic spread quickly and widely, far ahead of the two pandemics.
It was not until the establishment of bacteriology in the late19th century that the source and transmission route of plague gradually became clear. 1894, when the French bacteriologist Yersin investigated the plague in Hong Kong, he found that the pathogen was a bacterium, which was later named Yersinia. 1898, another Frenchman, Siemund, determined that the transmission route of plague was that fleas spread germs from mice to people. By the middle of the 20th century, the invention of antibiotics made plague an easily curable disease, and the improvement of public health and living environment cut off the transmission route of plague. Now, the plague is very rare, but it has not completely disappeared, because it will still spread from mouse to mouse, and it will be transmitted to people whenever possible. Although plague is not incurable and easy to control, the shadow left by historical tragedy is hard to eliminate and is still regarded as the most horrible disease by many people.
rabies
The face of rabies virus has been clearly presented to people for only one hundred years, but the clear record of virus disease existed as early as 400 years ago. As early as 1566, cases of mad dogs biting people and causing diseases were recorded, but until 1885, people still didn't know what caused rabies.
In the era when bacterial theory was dominant, the famous French scientist Pasteur found through experiments that rabies medulla oblongata extract containing pathogens was injected into rabbits for many times, and then these liquids with decreasing toxicity were injected into dogs, so that dogs could resist rabies virus infection with normal strength in the future. 1889, Pasteur invented rabies vaccine, which conquered rabies and shocked the whole of Europe.
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, also known as "consumption" and "white plague", is an ancient infectious disease. It is a chronic infectious disease caused by tuberculosis infection. Tuberculosis can invade all organs of the human body, but mainly the lungs, which is called tuberculosis. Historically, it was widely popular all over the world, and it was once the main killer of human beings, killing hundreds of millions of people. 1882, Koho found that the pathogen of tuberculosis is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but it is still widely popular in the world because there is no effective therapeutic drug. Since 1950s, effective anti-tuberculosis drugs have been continuously discovered, which has brought the epidemic situation under control. However, after entering the 1990s, due to the neglect of tuberculosis in many countries, the downward trend of tuberculosis epidemic slowed down and some countries and regions rebounded. Therefore, the World Health Organization declared a "global tuberculosis emergency" in 1993, and designated March 24th every year as "World Tuberculosis Day". As long as the government attaches importance to it and increases investment. Implement modern and scientific prevention and control strategies and continue confrontation for a long time. Tuberculosis is a disease that can be cured and controlled.
smallpox
This is another infectious disease whose terror can be compared with the plague. Its history of harming mankind may be longer than the plague. It is said that it originated in India or Egypt more than 3000 years ago. About 60% of the population in the ancient world was threatened by smallpox, and14 infected people would die, and most of the survivors would be blind or leave scars. Fortunately, smallpox has been completely eliminated by human beings, becoming the first and only infectious disease to be eliminated so far.
Smallpox is caused by smallpox virus and there is no cure. However, once people get through smallpox, they will be immune to smallpox virus in their bodies, so it is not easy to get smallpox again. This has long been recognized by people. In ancient China and other countries, people tried to take advantage of this feature to prevent smallpox: vaccinating healthy people from the wounds of smallpox patients could easily cause serious side effects and even death.
1798, a British doctor, Chen Na, initiated vaccination against vaccinia, but this vaccination was not widely promoted. /kloc-after the invention of vaccinia in 0/50 years, there are still about 50 million people suffering from smallpox every year in the world. Until 1967, the World Health Organization launched a campaign to eliminate smallpox. 1977, the last case of naturally occurring smallpox appeared in Somalia. 1978, an accident happened in the British laboratory, and two workers were infected with smallpox-the last episode of smallpox before quitting the earth stage. 1980, the World Health Assembly officially announced the complete eradication of smallpox. Smallpox virus no longer exists in nature, and only laboratories in the United States and Russia still keep samples.
196 1 year, the last case of smallpox in China appeared in Ximeng county. Since then, smallpox has stopped spreading in China, nearly 20 years ahead of the global eradication time.
cholera
Cholera has been prevalent in the Ganges Delta of India since ancient times, and there have been six world pandemics in the century from 18 17- 1923. 1883 The fifth epidemic, Koho first discovered Vibrio cholerae from the feces of Egyptian patients. 1905, a Vibrio cholerae-like strain was isolated from pilgrimage to mecca's corpse at El Tol Quarantine Station in Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. It was named Vibrio El Tol, and the disease caused by Vibrio El Tol was later called Vibrio paracholera. Because the morphological and serological characteristics of the two vibrios are basically the same, and their clinical manifestations and prevention are also the same, the15th World Health Assembly decided on May 1962 to collectively refer to the diseases caused by the two vibrios as cholera.
At the end of the 20th century, the resurgence of cholera was called "the most unfortunate event in the world". According to the statistics of reports received by the World Health Organization, 199 1 year has nearly 600,000 cases of cholera worldwide, with16,700 deaths. This figure exceeds the total number of cholera cases and deaths in the past five years. This cholera epidemic, although the death toll is not too much compared with cholera found in history, is considered as "the most unfortunate event in the world", mainly because this cholera concentrated in developing countries for the first time in human history, which shows that the decline of living standards, social unrest and deterioration of living conditions caused by large-scale population movements have become the main factors of contemporary plague.
Cholera is an invasive infectious disease in China. Since the introduction of18th century, it has happened hundreds of times. 1952, the last case was found in Tianjin, but no cholera was found in China.
AIDS
AIDS is the English abbreviation of "Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome" (AIDS). HIV is a lifelong infection, which destroys people's immune system and makes people lose their ability to resist various diseases. In June, 198 1, the US Centers for Disease Control reported five such cases for the first time, all of which were homosexuals. Subsequently, patients with similar symptoms were found in the United States and other countries, and then spread widely around the world. Since the first case of AIDS was discovered, human beings have been fighting AIDS for nearly 20 years, but so far no effective vaccine and treatment have been found.
SARS (atypical pneumonia)
Atypical pneumonia is an acute respiratory infection. On March 15, 2003, the World Health Organization officially confirmed that a variant of coronavirus was the pathogen causing atypical pneumonia and named it Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Sars is an acute respiratory infectious disease, which is mainly spread through close air droplets and close contact. Patients with atypical pneumonia have the following symptoms: high fever (above 38℃), dry cough, shortness of breath or dyspnea, chills, headache, loss of appetite, physical discomfort, rash and diarrhea.
The case appeared in China in the spring of 2003, and soon spread to the whole country, which brought serious influence on people's life, politics, economic development and many other aspects.