List of epidemics

This article is a list of major pandemics and epidemics caused by infectious diseases in human history. Events in boldface are ongoing.

Worldwide Pandemics 

 1194-1184 BCE: influenza: Trojan War epidemic
 713 BCE: influenza: Assyrian epidemic
 430-425 BCE:  influenza (?): Plague of Athens
 165-180: Antonine Plague, perhaps smallpox
 541: the Plague of Justinian
 591-592:  influenza: Extreme Cough
 1300-50s: The Black Death in Europe and Asia during the Late Middle Age (Killed 60% of the population) 
 1501-1587: typhus
 1729: influenza
 1732-1733: influenza
 1775-1776: influenza
 1781: influenza
 1816-1826: cholera
 1829-1851: cholera
 1830: influenza
 1847-1848: influenza
 1852-1860: cholera
 1855-1950s: bubonic plague: Third Pandemic in China and India
 1857-1859: influenza
 1870-1874: smallpox
 1863-1875: cholera
 1881-1893: cholera
 1889-1892: influenza
 1899-1923: cholera
 1918-1920: avian flu: Spanish flu: more people were hospitalized in World War I from this epidemic than wounds. Estimates of the dead range from 20 to 40 million worldwide (WHO)
 1957-1958: influenza: avian flu: Asian flu
 1961-present: cholera called El Tor
 1981-present: HIV/AIDS (As of 2018, more than 32 million have died from AIDS) 
 1968-1969: influenza: avian flu: Hong Kong flu
 2002-2003: SARS
 2009-2010: 2009 flu pandemic (swine flu) 
 2019 to present: COVID-19 pandemic (Ongoing pandemic)

Regional

Asia 

 1997: Avian flu - China, Hong Kong
 2019-present: COVID-19 (Wuhan, Hubei, China)

Central and South America 

 1493: influenza - Hispaniola
 1518: smallpox - Hispaniola
 1520: smallpox - Mexico
 1527-1530: smallpox - Peru
 1530-1531: measles - Mexico, Peru
 1546: typhus - Mexico, Peru
 1558-1559: influenza - Mexico, Peru
 early 1600s: malaria
 1648: yellow fever

Europe 

 415 BCE: Athenian army in Sicily
 393 BCE: Carthaginian siege of Syracuse
 1347-1351: Black Death
 1582-1583: plague - San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain)
 1613: diphtheria - "El año de los Garotillos"
 1782: influenza: Russian Katarrh

Egypt & North Africa 

 212 BCE: Second Punic War epidemic
 1801: plague
 1831: cholera
 1834-1836: plague
 1848, 1865, 1881: cholera
 1902: cholera
 1942-1944: falciparum malaria
 1946: relapsing fever
 1947: cholera

North America 

 1657: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
 1687: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
 1690: yellow fever - New York, New York
 1713: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
 1721-1722: smallpox - Boston, Massachusetts
 1729: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
 1738: smallpox - South Carolina
 1739-1740: measles - Boston, Massachusetts
 1747: measles - Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina
 1759: measles - North America
 1761: influenza - North America and West Indies
 1772: measles - North America
 1775: unknown cause - North America, particularly in the northeast
 1783: Bilious fever - Dover, Delaware
 1788: measles - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York
 1793: influenza and "putrid fever" - Vermont
 1793: influenza - Virginia
 1793: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 1793: unknown - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
 1793: unknown - Middletown, Pennsylvania
 1794: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 1796-1797: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 1798: yellow fever - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 1803: yellow fever - New York
 1820-1823: fever - United States spreading from the Schuylkill River
 1831-1832: Asiatic cholera - United States (brought by English immigrants)
 1832: cholera - New York City and other major cities
 1833: cholera - Columbus, Ohio
 1834: cholera - New York City
 1837: typhus - Philadelphia
 1841: yellow fever - United States (especially severe in the South)
 1847: yellow fever New Orleans
 1848-1849: cholera - North America
 1849: cholera New York
 1850: yellow fever - United States
 1850-1851: influenza - North America
 1851: cholera Coles County, Illinois, The Great Plains, and Missouri
 1852: yellow fever - United States (New Orleans-8,000 die in summer)
 1855: yellow fever - United States
 1860-1861: smallpox - Pennsylvania
 1865-1873: smallpox - Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, New Orleans
 1865-1873: cholera - Baltimore, Maryland, Memphis, Washington, DC
 1865-1873: recurring epidemics of typhus, typhoid, scarlet fever, and yellow fever
 1873-1875: influenza - North America and Europe
 1876: smallpox - Deadwood, South Dakota
 1878: yellow fever - Memphis, New Orleans
 1885: typhoid - Plymouth, Pennsylvania
 1886: yellow fever - Jacksonville, Florida
 1918-1920: Spanish flu - Fort Riley, Kansas

References 

 Kuhnke, Laverne. Lives at Risk: Public Health in Nineteenth-Century Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1990.
 Gallagher, Nancy. Egypt's Other Wars: Epidemics and the Politics of Public Health. Syracuse University Press, c1990. Published by the American University in Cairo Press. 
 Kinch, Michael. Between Hope and Fear: A History of Vaccines and Human Immunity. New York: Pegasus Books, 2018. ISBN 9781681777511
 Rosen, William, Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe, New York: Penguin Random House, 2008 ISBN 9780143113812

Related pages 

 List of historical plagues