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Exploring plagues and pandemics throughout history.

Medicine

Modern medicine has eradicated some of humanity&#39;s plagues, but there are many places in the world where dangerous illnesses remain a common threat. Ebola has been popping up in the headlines over the past few years, especially after a 2014 outbreak infected several people in the United States. Throughout history, Ebola has been one of the world&#39;s<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-top-13-most-incredible-viruses-on-earth/analise.dubner" target="_blank"> deadliest&nbsp;viruses</a>, with a high case fatality rate. The worst Ebola&nbsp;outbreaks stand out as some of the most <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/insane-epidemics-that-threatened-humanity/amber-fua" target="_blank">horrifying epidemics</a> of all time.&nbsp;

Scientists are working on a vaccine for the Ebola virus, but it has been a long road to developing a viable treatment. With each outbreak, many people unfortunately still perish. The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-ebola-vaccines-analysis/why-the-world-needs-more-than-one-ebola-vaccine-idUSKCN1IO2A7" target="_blank">first Ebola vaccine</a> was distributed to select regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the first half of 2018, sparking hope that Ebola deaths could become a thing of the past. The vaccine is not ready for worldwide deployment, but signs of a decreasing Ebola fatality rate are already starting to show. Reading about all the historic Ebola outbreaks will help remind us all why medical research is so important, and what an epidemic looks like without access to vaccines.

Disease Outbreaks

Outbreaks of disease have impacted the lives of individuals and communities throughout history. Whether it&#39;s an epidemic (a somewhat localized influx of cases) or a pandemic (a global phenomenon), illnesses that upend daily life, social activities, political institutions, and economic livelihoods leave an indelible mark on those who live through them. Historically, epidemics and pandemics provide guidance about how to manage diseases, perhaps offering instructive lessons on what to do - and what not to do - when illness strikes.&nbsp;

The length&nbsp;of an epidemic or a pandemic doesn&#39;t dictate the number of cases of a disease, nor does it determine the number of casualties. The Black Death of the Middle Ages, for example, lasted about seven years and took as many lives as the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic of the early 20th century.

Determining how long epidemics and pandemics last is difficult. How long pandemics last can vary based on the type of disease and responses to it. Some of history&#39;s most notable outbreaks&nbsp;have lasted for hundreds of years, while others subsided within a matter of months.&nbsp;Here&#39;s a roundup of several prominent epidemics and pandemics in human history, the number of lives lost, and what happened from beginning to end.

Of all the horrors of World War I, it wasn&#39;t the bombs, bullets, or even the mustard gas that ended up as the greatest killer. In reality, the act of moving that many people around the world turned out to be the most deadly fruit of war. The last year of the war, 1918, saw the most deadly pandemic the world has ever known. With all those millions of soldiers being shipped around the globe, it spread like wildfire.

This was the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/spanish-flu-survivor-stories/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">Spanish influenza</a> pandemic. In terms of sheer numbers killed, the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-prisons-handled-spanish-flu/megan-summers" target="_blank">Spanish influenza</a> beats out the Black Death as the king of historical epidemics. The statistics of the Spanish flu are just brutal, and the disease touched every corner of the globe. Survivors tell of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/spanish-flu-survivor-stories/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">heartbreaking scenes of misery and quarantine</a>, and today the flu ranks as one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/historical-figures-who-died-of-cured-diseases/aaron-edwards">worst diseases</a> in history, a reminder of how deadly influenza can really be.

When a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/insane-epidemics-that-threatened-humanity/amber-fua" target="_blank">mysterious, rampant disease</a> began ending the lives of infants in New York City in the 1850s, there were a lot of theories about what was really happening. As it turned out, the cause&nbsp;was milk. The Swill Milk Scandal of 1858 <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/swill-milk-scandal-new-york-city" target="_blank">was discovered by a journalist</a> who investigated the loss of life and traced&nbsp;it back to tainted cow milk. Much as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/john-snow-cholera-map/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">John Snow mapped out cholera</a> in London during the same decade, Frank Leslie&#39;s Illustrated Newspaper&nbsp;revealed the horrors of milk production and how it was sickening people.

Swill milk was produced by swill cows - bovines fed the run-off, mash, and swill from nearby whiskey distilleries. The cows were kept in horrible conditions and ultimately produced milk full of runoff and bacteria. Sold cheap and marketed as pure, &quot;swill milk&quot;&nbsp;wasn&#39;t banned until almost a decade after the deadly events of the 1850s. However,&nbsp;the tragic scandal&nbsp;did create an awareness of food safety in the United States.&nbsp;

World History

Flagellants were men and women who practiced physical forms of self-punishment in order&nbsp;to purge themselves and the world of sin. People have&nbsp;been practicing&nbsp;self-punishment&nbsp;for centuries,&nbsp;denying themselves even the most minimal&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/medieval-diets/kellen-perry" target="_blank">comforts</a>&nbsp;in order to appease various&nbsp;religious rites. And, in the chaos of the Middle Ages, the flagellant movement gained particularly&nbsp;noticeable popularity among the pious.Most people know about flagellants from Dan Brown books and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/middle-ages-myths/kellen-perry" target="_blank">medieval</a> lore, but the actual slaps and cries of medieval flagellation are deeply rooted in the&nbsp;need to please God, make <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-medieval-plague-doctors-and-their-methods/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">disease</a> and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/medieval-barbers-and-surgery-in-the-middle-ages/kellen-perry" target="_blank">hardships</a>&nbsp;go away, and stave off the impending end of the world.

Weird

They say these guys have existed since the beginning of life on Earth. As far back as there&#39;s a plant or animal record, there are viruses. Life has adapted, changed, grown - and still <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/biggest-infectious-disease-outbreaks-since-plague/kellie-kreiss" target="_blank">the virus plagues it</a>. It has been re-inventing itself over and over again in order to outwit, outlast and outplay its targets.

The virus of today is highly complex and nearly impossible to control or contain. Over the past million+ years, they&#39;ve developed a level of survivalism and efficiency that is astounding to behold. We keep studying, keep trying to find new ways to defeat them, and they continue to calmly mutate around every new thing we throw at them.

We have been struggling with the deadliest, worst viruses since the beginning of humanity itself. Whether you&#39;ve suffered from the common cold or something more rare and gut wrenching, you&#39;ve definitely come into contact with a human virus.

There have been countless&nbsp;historic disease outbreaks, but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/insane-epidemics-that-threatened-humanity/amber-fua" target="_blank">some are better known than others</a>.&nbsp;Diseases like the bubonic plague are ubiquitous, but most people forget about&nbsp;medieval <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-medieval-sweating-sickness/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">sweating sickness</a>, and few&nbsp;remember&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-dancing-plague/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">dancing plague</a>&nbsp;of the 16th century.&nbsp;Some of the worst diseases in history killed off the majority of people who came into contact with them, so facts about ancient diseases are obscure, and much of what we know today is based on speculation.&nbsp;Take for example the Plague of Athens, an unidentified disease that&nbsp;killed tens of thousands of Greeks&nbsp;in the fifth century BCE.&nbsp;Some people believe that the plague was actually the&nbsp;Ebola virus, which has&nbsp;opened up a new line of inquiry into the mysterious disease that caused painful hemorrhages, fevers, aches, pains, and often&nbsp;death.

What It's Like

The Black Death changed the world. As the most profound epidemic in human history, the plague claimed the lives of millions, with nearly half of Europe&#39;s population perishing from the disease. Some feared they were living through the apocalypse amidst the chaotic upheaval, while&nbsp;others turned to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/sex-during-black-plague/kellen-perry" target="_blank">sinful pleasure during the plague</a>&nbsp;to distract from the horror.&nbsp;And as for <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-happened-to-victims-of-the-black-plague/erin-wisti " target="_blank">what happened to victims of the plague</a>, well, it wasn&#39;t opportune.

Surviving the Black Death wasn&#39;t easy. How did someone&nbsp;protect themselves&nbsp;from it and who did they blame when they&nbsp;got sick? What happened to their&nbsp;body as the infection spread? How did they get <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/medieval-wine-windows/garri-chaverst" target="_blank">their wine amid a horrifying disease</a>? The only certainty was demise; after all,&nbsp;bubonic plague in the Middle Ages didn&#39;t spare anyone: monks and nuns perished alongside mothers and their children, rich men, and even royalty.&nbsp;

Here&#39;s how plague victims lived day to day.

History

The so-called &quot;Black Death&quot; arrived in <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/black-death" target="_blank">southern Europe&nbsp;in 1347</a>&nbsp;from the Near and Far East and spread through England, Germany, and Russia over the next three years, killing about one-third of the population, or more. The source of the bubonic plague was - and still is - <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/plague-yersinia-pestis-a-to-z" target="_blank">Yersinia pestis</a><a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/plague-yersinia-pestis-a-to-z" target="_blank">,</a> a bacterium found in certain fleas and spread by black rats. You might think such a devastating and oh-so-medieval pestilence has little to do with our 21st-century world, but you&#39;d be wrong: the modern impact&nbsp;of the Black Death is evident all around us, from our hospitals to our Halloween costumes.

Exploring&nbsp;how the Black Death changed the world reveals that there&#39;s very little that wasn&#39;t impacted by death and disease at such a massive level. Among the&nbsp;effects the Black Death had on Europe was a change to the genetics of modern Europeans. The plague literally changed who modern Europeans are, all the way down to their DNA.

Others ways the black plague changed the world are less profound but still fascinating (who knew that such devastation gave rise to English pub culture?). Not to mention, the plague isn&#39;t entirely eradicated. In 2020, a <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202007/05/WS5f01d743a310834817257493.html" target="_blank">suspected case of the plague</a> in Mongolia&nbsp;caused&nbsp;authorities to&nbsp;issue a citywide Level 3 warning.&nbsp;

Known as one of the most illegal places one could (but really shouldn&#39;t)&nbsp;visit, Poveglia Island sits just off the coast of northern&nbsp;Italy&nbsp;near Venice. When most people begin&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-small-cities-to-visit-in-italy/places-to-go" target="_blank">planning&nbsp;a trip</a> to that part of the world, images of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/must-see-attractions-in-italy/ranker-travel" target="_blank">romantic walkways and Renaissance&nbsp;art </a>come to mind -&nbsp;haunted islands, on the other hand, generally don&#39;t rank very high on anyone&#39;s must-see list.&nbsp;

But some visitors are still curious about the small, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/most-terrifying-haunted-hospitals/cristina-sanza" target="_blank">infamous Italian island</a> that once hosted thousands of refugee black plague victims, serving&nbsp;as a quarantine island for those who were&nbsp;even suspected of harboring the&nbsp;bacteria. The&nbsp;island remains one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/black-plague-ghost-stories/erin-wisti" target="_blank">most haunted places in Italy</a>;&nbsp;and despite the fact that it is illegal to visit Poveglia, thrill-seekers continue to consider it a cool, albeit creepy destination; however, everyone who has taken the chance of stepping foot on the island has left with absolutely no desire to ever return. Read on to learn more about this haunted island in Italy.

In the early 1900s, germ theory was a relatively new concept, and many &ndash; including doctors &ndash; were unaware of how&nbsp;diseases spread. At the time,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-people-who-died-of-typhoid-fever/reference" target="_blank">bacterial diseases</a> like typhoid and dysentery could still wipe out an entire family.

Mary Mallon&nbsp;was an <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/horrible-things-in-ireland-history/philgibbons" target="_blank">Irish immigrant</a> who worked as a cook for affluent New York families. In her wake, she&nbsp;unknowingly&nbsp;left an outburst of&nbsp;typhoid fever, earning her the epithet &quot;Typhoid Mary.&quot; By that&nbsp;time, doctors knew the disease&nbsp;was most commonly spread through excrement, and&nbsp;they were able to trace outbreaks by locating the start of an epidemic and following its spread.&nbsp;

By the time of her first quarantine in 1907,&nbsp;doctors determined that&nbsp;Mallon&nbsp;had infected 22 people&nbsp;and caused the death of a little girl. When she was permanently quarantined in 1915, she had ultimately infected an estimated 51 people, at least three of whom died from the disease. Since no healthy carriers had yet been identified,&nbsp;Mallon&nbsp;refused to believe that she &ndash;&nbsp;a healthy, middle-aged woman &ndash;&nbsp;could possibly be the culprit behind the disease&#39;s spread.

Eventually, public health officials in New York traced the outbreaks to the outwardly healthy&nbsp;Mallon, who landed herself in quarantine for life on <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/strange-history-north-brother-island/bailey-benningfield?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">North Brother Island</a> after numerous fights and blatant refusals.&nbsp;In an almost decade-long battle that struck fear into many city-dwellers&#39; hearts, the legendary lady played a game of disease-riddled cat and mouse with New York&#39;s Public Health division.&nbsp;

Human Body

Spikes in cancer, or cancer clusters, occur when a high number of people in a small geographical area experience similar ailments over a short period of time. Some&nbsp;cancer clusters have possible causes, although investigating and discovering those&nbsp;causes can take years. Current cancer clusters are breaking out everywhere from small Canadian towns to booming cities like San Francisco. Given different places so frequently have radically different cancer rates, the outbreaks below have been subject to a heavy amount of research, investigation, and public scrutiny.&nbsp;How do cancer clusters form? Unfortunately, investigations rarely lead to a clearer understanding of what causes cancer in certain areas. While researches sometimes uncover a lack of corporate oversight, the scientific community still has a&nbsp;limited understanding of cancer itself.&nbsp;This means,&nbsp;despite the myriad theories about <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/surprising-things-that-could-give-you-cancer/michael-darling" target="_blank">what causes cancer</a>, causes often remain ambiguous especially due to&nbsp;the lack of common factors between&nbsp;clusters. Many places where cancer is common are positioned near&nbsp;plants or factories that produce harmful chemicals, but other areas are desolate and isolated. Unfortunately, pending major breakthroughs in cancer research, how and why high cancer rates occur in specific areas will largely remain a mystery.&nbsp;

From&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-the-black-death-changed-the-world/kellen-perry" target="_blank">Black Death</a>, which fundamentally transformed the world, to the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-medieval-sweating-sickness/melissa-sartore " target="_blank">sweating sickness that felled people in hours</a>, medieval Europeans dealt&nbsp;with all kinds of mysterious and agonizing ailments. And here&#39;s another to add to that list: St. Anthony&#39;s Fire.

St. Anthony&#39;s Fire made sufferers&nbsp;feel like their limbs were on fire, and it was caused by <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/botanical-origins-medieval-madness" target="_blank">ergot</a>, a fungus that could infect rye grain. <a href="http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/LECT12.HTM" target="_blank">Hundreds of hospitals </a>sprung up to offer St. Anthony&#39;s Fire treatments, but no one knew what caused the disease, which made people&#39;s limbs turn black and fall off. For centuries, Europeans wondered: Is St. Anthony&#39;s Fire contagious? Was it sent by God as a punishment? And could anything cure the disease?

One crafty nobleman marketed his cure as &quot;holy grains&quot; (i.e. uninfected grains), but thousands succumbed to ergotism before farmers realized the black cockspurs on rye grains were deadly. And it turns out there&#39;s a connection between St. Anthony&#39;s Fire and LSD &ndash; which might have influenced Renaissance art.&nbsp;

poll

The Crazies

Here is a list of the best movies with disease outbreaks. Are you a fan of movies about <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/scariest-fictional-diseases-in-movies/mike-mcgranaghan" target="_blank">scary infections</a>,&nbsp; movies about&nbsp;viruses, and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-accurate-pandemic-movies/maggie-clancy" target="_blank">crazy medical pandemics</a>? You might be surprised to find out how many movies were made with disease outbreaks in them. Browse through this list to see the best movies with disease outbreaks. Ranked in order of the most popular movie with disease outbreaks to the least popular, it will be easy to find a great movie to watch that was voted #1. If you see a good pandemic&nbsp;movie that you think should get a top spot, go ahead and vote for it to get it raised higher on the list.

If you don&rsquo;t see your favorite disease outbreak movie listed here, go ahead and add it to the list so that others can enjoy it as much as you have. Movies like Contagion and Virus have a unique plot that leaves the viewer on the edge of their seat and eerily resemble&nbsp;the coronavirus outbreak that started in 2019.&nbsp;But there are numerous good disease outbreak films to see, many of them just as suspenseful and fascinating as the last - and many of them <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-movies-about-historical-illnesses/kellie-kreiss" target="_blank">pretty historically accurate</a> as well.

If you saw a favorite disease outbreak movie a long time ago but can&rsquo;t remember the name, chances are you may find it on this list of the best disease outbreak movies, or this <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-tv-shows-with-disease-oubreaks/ranker-tv" target="_blank">other list of the best disease outbreak TV shows</a>. Then you can possibly stream it on Netflix,&nbsp;rent it, or purchase it and enjoy the movie all over again! So go ahead and look through the list of best movies with disease outbreaks to find either a long-ago oldie or a brand new favorite to enjoy! One thing&nbsp;is certain, the next time you get an infection, you&#39;ll probably start believing you&#39;ve gotten caught up in a terrible new plague. But hey, at least you&#39;ll know how to fight it off!

Medieval Europe had no shortage of diseases, from the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/insane-epidemics-that-threatened-humanity/amber-fua&nbsp;" target="_blank">black plague that killed millions</a> to the bizarre <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-medieval-sweating-sickness/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">medieval sweating sickness that could kill within hours</a>. But one of the strangest diseases in history has to be the dancing sickness. Afflicted people would dance uncontrollably for days at a time, sometimes until they fell over dead.In the dancing plague of 1518, four hundred people danced in the streets of Strasbourg for months, as the city tried all sorts of cures for the afflicted dancers. When hiring musicians to “burn out” the dancing didn’t work, the city tried banning dancing completely and kicked out all the prostitutes and gamblers. One physician even blamed rebellious women for the outbreak.How did Strasbourg finally end the outbreak of dancing mass hysteria? In a strange turn of events, the&nbsp;cure involved red shoes. The bizarre history of Strasbourg’s dancing plague is baffling. Dancing mania has to rank among the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/mass-hysteria-in-history/kellen-perry&nbsp;" target="_blank">strangest cases of mass hysteria in history</a>, as people were literally dancing to death.&nbsp;Keep reading to learn more about the strange medieval dancing plague.

Historical Facts

Responsible for eliminating anywhere between 30 to 60% of Europe&#39;s population between 1346 and 1353, the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/how-the-black-death-changed-the-world/kellen-perry" target="_blank">bubonic plague</a> was a cause of terror. Gruesome symptoms led to mass panic and widespread fear. What happened to people with the black plague? From oozing boils to decaying skin, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-medieval-plague-doctors-and-their-methods/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">gross symptoms</a> of the black plague were a common sight in Europe during the 1300s.&nbsp;

The disease occasionally crops up again today. While not always fatal, bubonic plague symptoms can have lasting consequences for sufferers. Early black plague signs include odd lumps and bumps, but also very common ailments. Many plague sufferers initially experience normal symptoms of a cold or flu, like a fever and chills, only to have their health start deteriorating rapidly.&nbsp;Learning about the black plague will leave you second-guessing waiting to see a doctor the next time you come down with a seemingly&nbsp;mild sickness.&nbsp;

Each year,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-people-who-died-of-influenza/reference" target="_blank">influenza</a> cases make headlines and - on occasion - people do die of the flu. Despite the fact we think of it as a mild ailment, there's a long history of flu deaths in America. Some flu seasons are more severe than others, with some of&nbsp;the worst flu outbreaks in history taking out thousands of citizens.&nbsp;So, which were the&nbsp;worst flus in the United States? Outbreaks going back all the way back to the American Revolution were deeply damaging, so many think&nbsp;deadly strains of the flu are a thing of the distant past.&nbsp;However, the worst outbreak in United States history happened <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/grim-spanish-influenza-facts/christopher-myers" target="_blank">only about a hundred years ago</a>! Terrible flu seasons&nbsp;tend to be pretty well documented, which helps prevent flu deaths today. Scientists continually try to update medicine and basic care practices&nbsp;to stop the&nbsp;biggest influenza outbreaks from repeating themselves for future generations. While this cannot eliminate the flu altogether, doctors now know of preventative measures, vaccinations,&nbsp;and effective treatments that have saved countless lives over the years.However, people can still die of the flu today!&nbsp;&nbsp;Remember to get your flu shot every year and see a doctor if you display any symptoms of influenza. While early symptoms may not feel like one of the worst flus ever, complications can arise even in healthy adults. These past flu outbreaks should remind you that the seemingly common illness can still have deadly results.&nbsp;

Buboes, black spots, and bloody froth: it was all in a day’s work for Black Death body collectors. The plague, which may have killed as many as 200 million people worldwide, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/how-the-black-death-changed-the-world/kellen-perry" target="_blank">changed everything</a>—including body disposal.During the plague, millions of bodies piled up in Europe. Bubonic plague body collectors risked their lives to clear out the streets, all for a hefty paycheck—and sometimes the chance to extort people out of their money.&nbsp;As the bubonic plague body count skyrocketed, with as many as one&nbsp;thousand deaths a day in some cities, the body collectors carted victims to mass graves, layering <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/ole-j-benedictow/black-death-greatest-catastrophe-ever" target="_blank">bodies and dirt</a>, “just as one makes lasagne with layers of pasta and cheese.” While some reveled in the face of death by holding cemetary orgies, the body collectors worked day and night. Find out what it was like to be a body collector during the bubonic plague.&nbsp;

Health

What happens when food is contaminated? The results can be devastating, as demonstrated by the deadliest food-borne illness outbreaks in US history.&nbsp;Over time, thousands of Americans have been killed by improperly handled or tainted foods&nbsp;and many more have been exposed to infectious diseases. These outbreaks often lead to <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-commonly-recalled-groceries/kevin-jacobsen" target="_blank">massive food recalls</a>, new government regulations, and widespread public backlash.&nbsp;Each instance&nbsp;where recalled food killed people shaped&nbsp;the country in a new way.&nbsp;

Contaminated food deaths are rare in the modern United States, but they still occur on occasion. Nearly every state has experienced at least one outbreak, and the culprits can be anything from olives to oysters. The one consolation for such tragedies, however, is those who perished&nbsp;from food-borne illnesses were not forgotten by our nation&#39;s lawmakers. Some of the outbreaks below resulted in massive changes to food safety laws. These laws&nbsp;help keep citizens safer and healthier than ever before.&nbsp;

The world is swarming with deadly diseases, and the history of humanity can certainly attest to this fact. There have been many instances spanning our existence of historic epidemics that threatened humanity.

While we are typically alarmed by&nbsp;more modern diseases and viruses such as AIDS or influenza, many scary health epidemics have been known to resurface over time. These&nbsp;illnesses&nbsp;that&nbsp;almost&nbsp;wiped&nbsp;out&nbsp;humans seem like something that could only happen in the distant past, but be warned: if we&#39;re not careful, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/worst-modern-contagious-diseases/harrison-tenpas">future diseases could threaten to end humanity as we know it</a>.&nbsp;

It's an Epidemic

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List of swine flu cases around the world. Swine flu outbreaks and swine flu countries are found here to show the impact of swine flu worldwide. List includes swine flu statistics- the number of swine flu cases in each country. Cases of swine flu by country. Information accurate as of 1/1/2010.

Swine Flu Countries - List of Swine Flu Cases/Swine Flu Outbreaks by Country

Swine Flu Cases Around The World

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Zambia

The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, neighbouring the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest.
Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was colonised during the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. After visits by European explorers in the eighteenth century, Zambia became the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.
On 24 October 1964, Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party maintained power from 1964 until 1991.

Turkey

Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a parliamentary republic largely located in Western Asia with the portion of Eastern Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south. The Mediterranean Sea is to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles demarcate the boundary between Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia. Turkey's location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia makes it a country of significant geostrategic importance.
Turkey has been inhabited since the paleolithic age, including various ancient Anatolian civilizations, Aeolian and Ionian Greeks, Thracians, and Persians. After Alexander the Great's conquest, the area was Hellenized, which continued with the Roman rule and the transition into the Byzantine Empire.

Tuvalu

Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Tuvalu has a population of 10,837. The total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres.
The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians. The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from Samoa and Tonga into the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone to migration into the Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia and Micronesia.
In 1568 Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay.

TimorLeste

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare.
What is now Zimbabwe was historically the site of many prominent kingdoms and empires, as well as a major route for migration and trade. The present territory was first demarcated by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company during the 1890s, becoming the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923. In 1965 the conservative white minority government unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia. The unrecognized state endured international isolation and a 15-year guerrilla war with black nationalist forces; this culminated in a peace agreement that established universal enfranchisement and de jure sovereignty in April 1980.
An ethnically diverse country of roughly 13 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona and Ndebele being most common. President Robert Mugabe is head of state and government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Vanuatu

Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is an Oceanian island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of the Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island in 1606. He claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies, and named it Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.
In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago, and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British–French Condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was founded in 1980.

Uganda

Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southwest by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. Uganda is the world's second most populous landlocked country after Ethiopia. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania, situating the country in the African Great Lakes region. Uganda also lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied but generally equatorial climate.
Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala. The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking populations migrated to the southern parts of the country.
Beginning in the late 1800s, the area was ruled as a colony by the British, who established administrative law across the territory. Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962.

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the largest country entirely within Europe. Ukraine borders Russia to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively.
The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited by humans since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key center of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but Ukraine's territories remained divided until they were consolidated into a Soviet republic in the 20th century. It became independent in 1991.
Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands, and it remains one of the world's largest grain exporters.

Saint Maarten

Palestinian Territories	

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories or occupied Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 1993, following the Oslo Accords, parts of the territories politically came under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority. In 2007, the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip violently split from the Palestinian Authority, governing the area of Gaza independently since. Israel still exercises full military control and Israeli civil control over 61% of the West Bank. In April 2011, the Palestinian parties signed an agreement of reconciliation, but its implementation has stalled since. Subsequent reconciliation efforts in 2012 did not succeed either.
The areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were part of the territory west of the Jordan River of Mandatory Palestine under British governance, formed in 1922. From the 1948 Arab–Israeli War until the 1967 Six-Day War, the West Bank was occupied and annexed by Jordan and the Gaza Strip occupied by Egypt, though limited authority had been exercised in Gaza by the All-Palestine Government from September 1948 until 1959. The legal borders of the Palestinian territories are currently recognised by pro-Palestine factions of the international community to be as established by the 1949 Armistice Agreements, and by Israel to fall within Israeli borders.

Turks and Caicos Islands

The Turks and Caicos Islands, or TCI for short, are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago, part of the larger Antilles island grouping. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population is about 31,500, of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands. The total population on the islands including foreigners is 49,000.
The Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres east-southeast of Miami, United States. The islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres.
The first recorded European sighting of the islands now known as the Turks and Caicos occurred in 1512. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control. For many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica.

Tunisia

Tunisia, officially the Tunisian Republic is the northernmost country in Africa and, at almost 165,000 square kilometres in area, the smallest country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east.
As of 2013, its population is estimated at just under 10.8 million. Its name is derived from its capital city, Tunis, located on the country's northeast coast.
Geographically, Tunisia contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert. Much of the rest of the country's land is fertile soil. Its 1,300 kilometres of coastline includes the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin and, by means of the Sicilian Strait and Sardinian Channel, features the African mainland's second and third nearest points to Europe after Gibraltar.

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is a twin island country off the northern edge of South America, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles.
Usually considered part of the Caribbean, it shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Grenada to the northwest, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west. The country covers an area of 5,128 square kilometres and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, with numerous smaller landforms. The two main islands are divided into nine regions, and one ward. Sangre Grande is the largest of the country's nine regions, comprising about 18% of the total area and 10% of the total population of the country. The nation lies outside of the hurricane belt.
The island of Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 to the capitulation of the Spanish Governor, Don José Maria Chacón, on the arrival of a British fleet of 18 warships on 18 February 1797.

Swaziland

Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland is a sovereign state in Southern Africa. It is neighbored by Mozambique to its east and by South Africa to its north, west and south. The country and its people take their names from Mswati II, the 19th-century king under whose rule Swazi territory was expanded and unified.
At no more than 200 kilometres north to south and 130 kilometres east to west, Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in Africa. Despite its size, however, its climate and topography is diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld. The population is primarily ethnic Swazis whose language is siSwati. They established their kingdom in the mid-18th century under the leadership of Ngwane III; the present boundaries were drawn up in 1881. After the Anglo-Boer War, Swaziland was a British protectorate from 1903 until 1967. It regained its independence on 6 September 1968.
The country is an absolute monarchy, currently ruled by Ngwenyama Mswati III. He is head of state and appoints the country's prime minister and a number of representatives of both chambers in the country's parliament.

Slovakia

Slovakia is a country in Central Europe.
It has a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres. Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is the capital, Bratislava. Slovakia is a member of the European Union, Eurozone, Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD and the WTO. The official language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic language family.
The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries. In the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samo's Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory of today's Slovakia was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which itself became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Slovaks and Czechs established Czechoslovakia. A separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reestablished.

Tanzania

Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north; Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west; Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south; and the Indian Ocean to the east. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. Tanzania's population of 44.9 million is highly diverse, composed of numerous ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. 

Tajikistan

Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a mountainous landlocked sovereign country in Central Asia. With an estimated 8 million people in 2013, it is the 98th most populous country and with an area covering 143,100 km², it is the 96th largest country in the world in terms of area. It is bordered by Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east.
The territory that now constitutes Tajikistan was previously home to several ancient cultures, including the city of Sarazm of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including the Oxus civilization, Andronovo culture, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Achaemenid Empire, Hephthalite Empire, Samanid Empire, Mongol Empire, Timurid dynasty, and the Russian Empire. As a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union Tajikistan became an independent nation in 1991. A civil war was fought almost immediately after independence, lasting from 1992 to 1997.

Switzerland

Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities, the so-called Bundesstadt. The country is situated in Western and Central Europe, where it is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km².

Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is a sovereign island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 km² and has a population of 174,000. Its capital is Castries.
One of the Windward Islands, Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the island's first European settlers. They signed a treaty with the native Carib Indians in 1660. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667. In ensuing years, it was at war with France 14 times, and rule of the island changed frequently. In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island. Because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the "Helen of the West Indies".
Representative government came about in 1840. From 1958 to 1962, the island was a member of the Federation of the West Indies. On 22 February 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations associated with the United Kingdom.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and known until 1972 as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia near the south-east of India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest. Its documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to WWII.

Sudan

Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is an Arab republic in the Nile Valley of North Africa, bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. It is the third largest country in Africa. The Nile River divides the country into eastern and western halves. Its predominant religion is Islam.
Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile River. During the predynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, simultaneously evolved systems of pharaonic kingship by 3300 BC. By virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 7th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language.

Somalia

Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. Somalia has the longest coastline on the continent's mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.
Somalia has a population of around 10 million. Around 85% of residents are ethnic Somalis, who have historically inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities make up the remainder and are largely concentrated in the southern regions. The official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afro-Asiatic family. Most people in the country are Muslim, with the majority being Sunni.
In antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre, and is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles Island arc, in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean. The country is also known as St. Vincent.
Its 389 km² territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines, which are a chain of smaller islands stretching south from Saint Vincent Island to Grenada. The main island of Saint Vincent measures 26 km long, 15 km in width and 344 km² in area. From the most northern to the most southern points, the Grenadine islands belonging to Saint Vincent span 60.4 km with a combined area of 45 km². Most of the nation lies within the Hurricane Belt.
To the north of Saint Vincent lies Saint Lucia, to the east Barbados. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a densely populated country with approximately 120,000 inhabitants.
Its capital is Kingstown, also its main port.

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of a large number of islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu and covering a land area of 28,400 square kilometres. The country's capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. Solomon Islands should not be confused with the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that includes Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island, but excludes the nation's outlying islands, such as the Santa Cruz group.
The islands have been inhabited for thousands of years. In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them, naming them the Islas Salomón. Britain defined its area of interest in the Solomon Islands archipelago in June 1893, when Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS Curacoa, declared the southern Solomon Islands as a British Protectorate with the proclamation of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. During the Second World War, the Solomon Islands campaign saw fierce fighting between the United States and the Empire of Japan, such as in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Slovenia

Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state on the Adriatic Sea, bordering Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Croatia to the south and southeast, and Hungary to the northeast. It covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.05 million. It is a parliamentary republic and a member of the European Union and NATO. Its capital and largest city is Ljubljana.
The territory, located in southern Central Europe at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes, is mainly mountainous with mainly continental climate, with the exception of the Slovene Littoral that has the sub-Mediterranean climate and the north-western area that has the Alpine climate. Additionally, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet on the territory of Slovenia. The country, marked by a significant biological diversity, is one of the most water-rich in Europe, with a dense river network, a rich aquifer system, and significant karst underground watercourses. Over half of the territory is covered by forest. The human settlement of Slovenia is dispersed and uneven.

List of swine flu cases around the world. Swine flu outbreaks and swine flu countries are found here to show the impact of swine flu worldwide. List includes ...