Worst Epidemics: List of deadly outbreaks of the last 100 years

Coronavirus is slowly taking over the world and is termed as one of the deadliest outbreaks of the last 100 years. World Health Organisation has named coronavirus as a pandemic because it is spreading on a global level while the epidemic is the outbreak in any particular region. Though, the current situation is deteriorating on a global level let’s take a look at some of the worst epidemics that have taken place in the last 100 years

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List of deadly outbreaks of the last 100 years

Spanish Flu in 1918-1919 

During the climax of the first world war, flu pandemic also known as the Spanish flu broke out killing almost twice the number of people died in the war.

At least 500 million people died due to this pandemic. About one-third total global population became infected with an influenza virus called H1N1, which originated in birds.

Asian Flu in 1957

This was similar to Spanish flue except for the fact that it was was an H2N2 influenza A strain. Approximately 1.1 million people died around the world, 

Hong Kong Flu in 1968

This was another deadly outbreak that occurred in 1968 and was caused by H3N2 influenza, a virus that came from birds. Approximately 1 million people died around the world due to this pandemic.

HIV/AIDS pandemic in 1980

This is a pandemic that has its root for quite some time now and still, scientists are not able to find a proper cure for this virus. Till now more than 32 million people have died due to this pandemic. This virus weakens the immune system by destroying cells that fight against diseases and infection. 

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak ( SARS) in 2002-2003

SARS was an outbreak that was quite similar to current COVID-19 as both the virus comes from the coronavirus family. Like COVID-19, SARS was also expected to have originated in bats, and first started spreading in Asia. It infected around 8,098 people out of which 774 of whom died.

Swine Flu in 2009

The swine flu pandemic mostly affected children and younger adults. It was estimated that between 2018 and 2019, there were 60.8 million cases of swine flu in the U.S. and 12,469 deaths. Also, globally it is estimated that approximately 151,700 to 575,400 people died due to this pandemic.

MERS 2012 Outbreak

The Middle East respiratory syndrome (or MERS) is very much similar to SARS, it is also a member of the coronavirus family of viruses. WHO had confirmed that approximately 2,500 cases of MERS have been reported so far out of which 861 people have died as of December 2019. The virus probably originated in bats.

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