Paul Chrystal - The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Plagues and Epidemics

From Prehistory to COVID-19

Paul Chrystal

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

Pen & Sword History

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Paul Chrystal 2021

ISBN 978 1 39900 542 5

ePUB ISBN 978 1 39900 543 2

Mobi ISBN 978 1 39900 544 9

The right of Paul Chrystal to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Gentlemen, its the microbes which will have the last word .

Louis Pasteur, 18221895

He wanted to do what all those around him were doing, apparently believing that the plague can come and go without the hearts of men being changedthey all returned home apparently triumphing over the plague, forgetful of those who had also arrived by the same train but had found no one and were preparing in their homes to have confirmation of fears already born in their hearts out of a long silence. For them, the ones who now had only their brand new sorrow for companion, and for others who were at that moment contemplating the memory of a lost loved one, things were very different and the feeling of separation had reached its peak. For such people, mothers, husbands, wives and lovers, who had lost all happiness with the being who was now buried in some anonymous pit or had dissolved into a pile of ashes, the plague was still there .

Albert Camus. The Plague , 1947

For Anne, Rachael, Michael and Rebecca key workers all

The Reconstruction of Myrtis. ( Photographer: Tilemahos Efthimiadis. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license )

The angel of death knocking on a door during the plague of Rome. ( Engraving by Levasseur after J. Delaunay. From the Wellcome Library, http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1158081 )

Michael Sweerts Plague in an Ancient City (ca. 165254). ( Los Angeles County Museum of Art )

St Sebastian pleading for the life of a gravedigger afflicted with plague during the Plague of Justinian, AD 541549. ( Josse Lieferinxe (1508) Walters Art Museum, Baltimore )

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Driving Away the Demons.

Sitala Mata.

A child infected with smallpox in Bangladesh, 1973.

Edward Jenner vaccinating patients against smallpox. ( Wellcome Collection, V0011069 )

Encephalitis lethargica .

Dr. Simmonds injecting his curative serum in a plague patient during the outbreak of bubonic plague in Karachi, 1897. ( Contained in an album of photographs which show the work of the Karachi Plague Committee in 1897. Library reference: ICV No 29763 Photo number: V0029287. Full Bibliographic Record: http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1187933 , Wellcome Library. Photograph probably by R. Jalbhoy )

11 & 12 . Washing away the plague in Bombay 18961905. ( Capt. C. Moss, Wellcome Library )

Flagellants at Doornik in the Netherlands scourging themselves in atonement, believing that the Black Death is a punishment from God for their sins, 1349.

The rat incinerator in Sydney.

Rat catchers with a pile of dead vermin in Sydney in 1900. Rats were fetching up to 6d a head during the outbreak.

A heap of rats in Sydney; about 600 of them.

Sydneys Sutton Forest Butchery at 761 George Street; the meat preparation area was clearly less than ideal and probably contributed to the mortality figures. ( Pictures 1417 courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, [FL1087836; FL1064108; FL1064109; FL1087816] )

A picture of a Manchurian plague victim in 19101911.

Dead Manchurian plague victims held in storage awaiting scientific research.

1918 flu patients in St Louis Red Cross Motor Corps in attendance, October 1918.

Camp Funston, Kansas emergency hospital during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Everyone has Influenza The Round of Doctors and Druggists. ( Wood engraving by Ppin (E. Guillaumin), 1889. This file comes from Wellcome Images )

Diphtheria is Deadly UK poster encouraging vaccination.

This cholera patient is drinking oral rehydration solution (ORS) in order to counteract his cholera-induced dehydration. ( This comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #5301 )

Precautions against psittacosis from the PBS Pet travel website.

A depiction of dancing mania, on the pilgrimage of epileptics to the church at Molenbeek.

A danse macabre from 1493 by victims of the Sweating Sickness.

Sign barring children under 16 from entering town, posted on a tree during the 1916 New York City polio epidemic. ( Courtesy of March of Dimes )

March of Dimes poster of Cyndi Jones as a poster child in St Louis, Missouri, 1956. ( Courtesy of Cyndi Jones )

Andr Mazet tending people suffering from yellow fever in the streets of Barcelona. ( Lithograph by Langlum after Martinet after J. Arago. This file comes from Wellcome Images )

An Asian Flu patient (19571958).

Asian Flu patients in Sweden.

Alley outside wet market on Xinghu Road, Shenzhen, China in 2019 during the COVID-19 pandemic. ( Photographer: Daniel Case. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 )

Oh dear. The only good news is that, despite what the media implied, swine flu cannot be caught from pigs, or pork.

How SARS terrified the world in 2003, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing 774. ( Lo Sai Hung/AP, https://www.businessinsider.com/deadly-sars-virus-history-2003-in-photos-2020-2?r=US&IR=T )

36 & 37 . Ebola virus victims in Liberia.

NHS medics practise taking a blood sample from a fake arm at the Army Medical Services Training Centre, at Strensall near Haxby, York. ( Simon Davis/DFID. This image is posted under a Creative Commons - Attribution Licence )

Microcephaly in Zica virus patients. ( Image: CDC )

Burying the evidence? A COVID-19 victim in Iran.

the UKs preparedness and response, in terms of its plans, policies, and capability, is currently not sufficient to cope with the extreme demands of a severe pandemic that will have a nationwide impact across all sectors .