The population has dropped sharply from 120 million to 60 million in two hundred years. The plague spread to India and Islam along the commercial road and penetrated from the Near East to Europe. It became the Black Death that wiped out one third of Europe’s population in the Middle Ages.
Medieval beak doctors who resisted the Black Death in medieval Europe
Seven outbreaks of smallpox in history have killed nearly 500 million people worldwide. In 1000 BC, smallpox was transmitted to India by Egyptian merchants. After ravaging Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Spanish colonists brought the smallpox virus to the American continent in the 16th century, completing its last leg, and the two civilizations, Aztec and Inca, became extinct.
Aztec and Inca, among the three ancient civilizations of Indians, have been destroyed by smallpox
Cholera first appeared in India and Bangladesh. The colonial and trade behavior of the British army in the 19th century quickly spread it across the Indian peninsula, and then spread by land and water to various parts of the world, beginning a global pandemic. Until now, there are still 3 to 5 million cases of cholera each year.
In addition to these three major influenza epidemic, as well as numerous equally deadly infectious diseases affecting human health: tuberculosis, measles, malaria, influenza, AIDS.
Since 2019, cholera has continued to spread in many African countries, involving 11 countries and regions.
, Vaccinia vaccination, smallpox vaccine and gene sequencing
The earliest, people summarized some methods to prevent infectious diseases in trial and error. Mongolians saw sick groundhogs (source of plague) < / span> Flocks would migrate away, Muslims fasted to pork, and South Indian Tamil did not drink water the next day.
Before enlightenment of modern medicine, people are only infectious disease prevention, no effective treatment . When the medieval plague raged in Europe, it was considered God’s punishment. People treat patients with repentance, sacrifices to Jews and witches, and bloodletting and emetics.
Prior to the enlightenment of modern medicine, people treated patients through repentance, sacrifice, bloodletting, vomiting, etc.
In the 14th century, when the plague in Florence broke out, people accepted the protection of religious rituals.
Until the 18th century, the emergence of public health and modern medicine, which respectively represented “prevention” and “treatment”, and the appearance of infectious diseases gradually became clear.
in the field of public health, in 1854, John Snow, the father of epidemiology of cholera in London found that the source of infection is contaminated public wells, so he controls through improved water, food, environment, health Live outbreak.
John Snow, British anesthesiologist and epidemiologist
Since the 1880s, international organizations have begun to detect the incidence of various diseases such as cholera and yellow fever, while establishing uniform health and quarantine standards for countries.
and medical achievement is fruitful, English physician Edward Jenner inoculated with cowpox invention in 1798, the first team in the history of the smallpox vaccine was born. The next 100 years, vaccines for different infectious diseases have been introduced successively, which has increased the average life expectancy of human beings by decades compared to the 19th century.
British doctor Edward Jenner invented vaccinia vaccination in 1798, the birth of the first smallpox vaccine in history
Modern medicine and public health management are two-pronged, and a complete infectious disease prevention system has been put into practice. At the same time, new technologies continue to be put into use: the use of AI to complete viral genome sequencing, the successful development of 3D printed protective masks, AI robots “police” and disinfection robots to participate in epidemic prevention.
Modern medicine and public health management have taken a two-pronged approach to practice a complete infectious disease prevention system
“Revenge of the rainforest”
Despite the rapid development of medical care, infectious diseases after the new century have not stopped.
“blood of infected” author Richard Preston believes, appear every new type of virus, are “being the decline of the biosphere echo.” As the population continues to grow, the expansion of natural resources is even greater. Reforestation, land reclamation, and even edible wild animals broke the safe distance between the two, which only caused the virus, so some people call zoonotic disease “the revenge of the tropical rain forest.” br>
According to a paper in the journal Nature, from 1940 to mid-2004, there were more than 300 emerging infectious diseases, 60.3% of which were zoonotic diseases, of which 71.8% were from wild animals.
On the other hand, traffic more developed society, infectious diseases spread faster. Imagine that year, even if the plague bacterium could board a ship, it would not be able to survive because the route was too long. The subsequent invention of the steamboat made propagation easier. The reason why the new crown epidemic in 2020 can intensify globally is also one of the backlashes brought about by globalization. As Richard Leipu Si said: “between civilization and viruses, separated by only a distance flight.”
The more developed the social transportation, the faster the spread of infectious diseases
At the same time, the virus will continue to mutate to achieve its own evolution, bypassing humans’ preparation of drugs and vaccines in advance. Although the new coronavirus has 76.47% amino acid sequence similar to SARS, it has stronger infectivity and longer incubation period.
shift in the virus and human power, it seems to have been to remind us – the river of time, in the eternal game and infectious diseases in humans far from victory.
Although New Crown Virus has 76.47% amino acid sequence similar to SARS, it has stronger infectivity and longer incubation period.
In the long-term game with infectious diseases, humans are far from winning
This article is from the WeChat public account: received (ID: sola-video) < span class = "text-remarks">, author: VOX