Friday, July 31, 2020

Plague and Pestilence – Lessons from History


In previous posts I have looked at the impact of plague and pestilence on the world and on Britain and Ireland in particular. Some four months after the start of lock-down and with no end to the coronavirus pandemic in sight, what can we learn from history?

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the COVID-19 virus was officially a pandemic after spreading to 114 countries in three months. By the end of March, over 823,566 people had been infected and the global death toll touched 40,643. In Britain, the total number of deaths was 1,789.

At the end of July 2020, there are now more than 300,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK and over 45,000 people have died although the true figures are likely to be higher. Confirmed cases are now starting to rise again prompting talk of a second wave. This is what happened with Spanish Flu after the First World War when a second wave proved deadlier than the first. While levels of infection are far below their peak, the most recent seven-day average for cases in the UK is 725 - a rise of 25% since 15 July.

The WHO prefers to describe the current situation as "one big wave" making its way across the globe. Prof Paul Hunter, at Norwich Medical School, says for it to be a second wave the virus would have to have gone away completely, so he calls it a "resurgence”.

The UK has the highest official death toll in Europe and the third highest in the world, after the US and Brazil. However, both countries have much larger populations than the UK and the number of people who have died per 100,000 people in the UK is currently higher than for either the US or Brazil.

At least another 130,000 people worldwide have died during the coronavirus pandemic on top of 440,000 officially recorded deaths from the virus, according to BBC research. These so-called "excess deaths", the number of deaths above the average for the period, suggest the human impact of the pandemic far exceeds the official figures reported by governments around the world. The number of deaths in the United Kingdom has been 43% higher than average, with about 64,500 more people dying than usual in the period 7th March to 5th June. So, what can we learn from previous pandemics?

The deadliest plagues are not necessarily the most successful in terms of spread. Between 430 and 426 BC the Plague of Athens was so virulent that it killed off its hosts at a rate faster than it could multiply which prevented the wider spread.

The Black Death

The bubonic plague, more commonly known as the Black Death, arrived on the shores of Europe in October 1347 and claimed an estimate of over 75 – 200 million lives in Eurasia. Thanks to the horrors of the plague, better hygiene practices and a push for medical advancements followed. The disease recurred in England every two to five years from 1361 to 1480. By the 1370s, England's population was reduced by 50%. 

The Deadly Bacteria behind the Bubonic Plague, Yersinia pestis, was present in black rats and other rodents and is thought to have been transmitted by parasites living in/on these animals, especially fleas. In medieval Europe one of the main predators of the black rat was the cat, domesticated by the ancient Egyptians and introduced on the continent by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC. Since then cats lived with humans and served a role by keeping away rats and other rodents.

In the early thirteenth century Pope Gregory IX declared that “The evil black cat had fallen from the clouds bringing unhappiness to man.” Medieval citizens began to believe that it was safer to exterminate cats – especially the black ones. With the passage of time, there was an almost widespread killing of cats in many parts of Europe. The result of this extermination was the rapid increase of rodents, particularly the "black rat", the main transmitter of the deadly Black Plague. 

A new study carried out by researchers at the University of Oslo suggests that because black rats may not be to blame for the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe after all. According to the research team, repeated plague epidemics were caused by another rodent: the gerbilino or gerbil from Asia. Too late, alas, for the 200,000 or so cats that gave their lives in the interests of public health. 

Modern sanitation and public-health practices have greatly diminished the impact of the disease but have not eliminated it. Although antibiotics are available to treat the Black Death, according to The World Health Organization, there are still 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year.

Spanish Influenza

The so-called Spanish flu, which raged from 1918 to 1920, infected 500 million people around the world. It became a pandemic on three different occasions and killed 40 million between 1918 to 1919. Medical progress and vaccination development followed helping to control and combat the spread of the virus. 

Asian flu -1957

Starting in Hong Kong in 1957, the Asian flu became widespread in England where, over six months, 14,000 people died. A second wave followed in early 1958, causing an estimated total of about 1.1 million deaths globally. A vaccine was developed, effectively containing the pandemic.

HIV/AIDS - 1981

First identified in 1981, AIDS destroys a person’s immune system, resulting in eventual death by diseases that the body would usually fight off. Treatments have been developed to slow the progress of the disease, but 35 million people worldwide have died of AIDS since its discovery, and a cure is yet to be found.

2003: SARS

In 2003, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infected 8,096 people and resulted in 774 deaths. Quarantine efforts proved effective and by July, the virus was contained and has not reappeared since.

Conclusion

As the number of new coronavirus infections and deaths continue to grow, life has changed radically. Quarantine measures have been imposed to try and limit the spread of the disease as in previous centuries. Throughout history, plagues and diseases have returned in waves, sometimes with even greater ferocity. High hopes hang on the early development of a vaccine and effective treatments but this by no means certain. Meanwhile, the likely impact of the pandemic on the world economy scarcely bears thinking about. These are unprecedented times for everyone, but the one thing we must not lose is hope.

For more information see:

(1) https://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.com/2020/03/plague-and-pestilence-past-and-present.html

(2)  https://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-black-death-in-ireland.html

(3) https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/black-death-plague-sowed-terror-and-death-medieval-europe-part-2-003822


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