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
165: Antonine Plague - Seleucia, Iraq
541: Plague of Justinian - Pelusium, Egypt
735: 735-737 Japanese smallpox epidemic - Dazaifu, Fukuoka, Japan
1772: 1772-1773 Persian Plague - Baghdad, Iraq
1826: 1826-1837 cholera pandemic - Ganges, India
1846: Third cholera pandemic - Mecca, Saudi Arabia
1855: Third plague pandemic - Yunnan, China
1889: 1889-1890 pandemic - Bukhara, Russia
1890: Russian flu - Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China
1918: 1918-1922 Russia typhus epidemic - Siberia, Russia
1957: 1957-1958 influenza pandemic - Guizhou, China
1968: Hong Kong flu - Hong Kong, China
1997: Avian flu - Hong Kong, China
2002: SARS - Foshan, Guangdong, China
2003: Avian influenza epidemic - Fujian, China
2012: 2012 MERS epidemic - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2015: 2015 South Korea MERS epidemic - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2019: 2019 Philippines measles outbreak - Manila, Philippines
2019-present: COVID-19 - Wuhan, Hubei, China
2019: 2019-20 Brucellosis outbreak - Lanzhou, Gansu, China
2020: 2020 Hantavirus outbreak - Luxi, Yunnan, China
2020: 2020 G4 EA H1N1 outbreak - Hebei, China
2020: 2020 Inner Mongolia bubonic outbreak - Bayannur, Inner Mongolia
2020: SFTS bunyavirus outbreak - Jiangsu, China
2020: 2020 Idiophatic outbreak - Eluru, India
2021: India fungus epidemic - New Delhi, India
2021: Hong Kong Streptococcus outbreak - Hong Kong
2021: Flurona - Petah Tikva, Israel
2022: 2022 Henan H3N8 outbreak - Zhumadian, Henan, China
2022: 2022 Langya virus outbreak in China - Shandong, China
2022: 2022 HFMD outbreak in the Philippines - San Pascual, Batangas
2023: 2023 North Korea respiratory disease outbreak - Pyongyang, North Korea
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
2009: 2009 swine flu pandemic - Veracruz, Mexico
Europe
415 BCE: Athenian army in Sicily
393 BCE: Carthaginian siege of Syracuse
1347-1351: Black Death - Xi'an, China
1582-1583: plague - San Cristobal de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain)
1629: 1629-1631 Italian plague - Milan, Italy
1613: diphtheria - "El ano de los Garotillos"
1656: Naples Plague - Naples, Italy
1665-1666: Great Plague of London - London, UK
1720: Great Plague of Marseille - Marseille, France
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
2022: 2022 monkeypox outbreak - Lagos, Nigeria
2022: 2022 Marburg virus disease outbreak in Ghana - Ashanti, Ghana
2022: 2022 Uganda Ebola outbreak - Mubende, Uganda
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 - Manhattan, Kansas, U.S.
2022: 2022 United States listeriosis outbreak - Maryland, U.S.
2022: 2022 North America tridemic - Ontario, Canada
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
History-related lists
Epidemiology