Viral

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus and infected approximately 500 million people wor...

HIV AIDS was first recognized in 1981 when the CDC reported unusual pneumocystis pneumonia clusters in young gay men in ...

COVID 19 was caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The WHO declared a pand...

The Asian Flu pandemic of 1957 to 1958 was caused by the H2N2 influenza A virus. The first cases were reported in Guizho...

The Hong Kong Flu pandemic of 1968 to 1970 was caused by the H3N2 influenza A virus. The virus was first recorded in Hon...

The Russian Flu pandemic of 1889 to 1890 was one of the first pandemics to occur in the era of rapid global transportati...

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome SARS was caused by the SARS coronavirus, first identified in Guangdong province, China...

The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa from 2014 to 2016 was the largest Ebola outbreak in history. The outbrea...

The Zika virus outbreak in the Americas began in Brazil in early 2015 and spread to over 80 countries and territories. Z...

The H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009 originated in Mexico and was caused by a triple reassortant swine influenza virus. T...

The Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 in Philadelphia killed approximately 5,000 people, roughly 10 percent of the city popu...

The 1918 Spanish Flu hit Philadelphia with devastating force. On September 28, 1918, the city held a Liberty Loan parade...

The 1916 polio epidemic in New York City was the first major polio outbreak in the United States. The epidemic caused ap...

The introduction of measles to Hawaii in 1848 devastated the native Hawaiian population. Captain James Cook had arrived ...

The introduction of smallpox to the Americas by European colonizers caused one of the largest demographic catastrophes i...

Ebola Reston was discovered in 1989 when monkeys at a quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia, began dying from a filovi...

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome MERS is caused by the MERS coronavirus MERS CoV, first identified in Saudi Arabia in 20...

Nipah virus was first identified in 1998 during an outbreak in Malaysia that killed 105 of 265 infected people, a case f...

Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa arenavirus, first identified in 1969 in Lassa, Nigeria. The...

Rift Valley Fever RVF is a viral zoonosis that primarily affects animals but can infect humans. The virus was first iden...

In May 1993, a cluster of unexplained deaths occurred in the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States where...

Marburg virus disease was first recognized in 1967 when laboratory workers in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, and Belgra...

The 2022 mpox outbreak, formerly known as monkeypox, was the first time mpox spread widely outside of Africa. The outbre...

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was first identified in South Africa and Botswana in November 2021 and designated a Va...

The Delta variant B 1 617 2 was first identified in India in October 2020 and designated a Variant of Concern in May 202...

A distinctive feature of the 1918 Spanish Flu was the W shaped mortality curve. Typical influenza pandemics produce a U ...

The Cutter Incident of 1955 was one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in US history. After the Salk polio vaccine wa...

The 1976 swine flu scare began when a soldier at Fort Dix, New Jersey, died of an H1N1 swine influenza virus similar to ...

The global spread of the 1918 Spanish Flu was dramatically accelerated by World War I troop movements. The first wave in...

The concept of Patient Zero in the HIV epidemic originated from a misunderstanding. The CDC identified a French Canadian...

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, was identified as the likely site of the initial SARS-CoV-2 spillov...

Seven coronaviruses are known to infect humans. Four cause common colds: HCoV 229E identified in 1965, HCoV OC43 in 1967...

The COVID 19 lab leak hypothesis proposes that SARS CoV 2 accidentally escaped from a laboratory, specifically the Wuhan...

H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza HPAI was first identified in a goose in Guangdong province, China, in 1996. The v...

H7N9 avian influenza emerged in eastern China in March 2013. Unlike H5N1, H7N9 causes little or no illness in birds, mak...

The 1918 Spanish Flu may have originated in northern China, not Europe. Historian Mark Humphries found archival evidence...

The 1721 Boston smallpox epidemic infected more than half of the approximately 10,600 residents and killed about 844. Du...

Yellow fever and malaria devastated both French and American canal construction efforts in Panama. The French effort led...

The 2014 mumps outbreak in the National Hockey League affected more than a dozen players. Mumps, a vaccine preventable v...

The 1918 Spanish Flu devastated Brazil, with estimates of deaths as high as 300,000 in a population of approximately 30 ...

The Delta wave in India in April to May 2021 was one of the most devastating COVID outbreaks globally. Official figures ...

Sweden took a unique approach to COVID 19, avoiding mandatory lockdowns and relying on voluntary measures. State epidemi...

New Zealand pursued an elimination strategy for COVID 19 under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The country implemented a ...

St Louis is frequently cited as an example of early pandemic response. When the first Spanish Flu cases appeared in earl...

Operation Warp Speed was the US government initiative to accelerate COVID vaccine development. Announced in May 2020, th...

The WHO China joint study on COVID origins conducted in January and February 2021 was criticized for limited access and ...

In February 2021, Russia reported the first human infections with H5N8 avian influenza. Seven poultry farm workers in so...

The 1949 polio outbreak in the US was one of the worst before vaccine availability. Approximately 42,000 cases were repo...

Toronto was the worst affected city outside Asia during the 2003 SARS outbreak. The virus arrived in February 2003 with ...

The 2018 to 2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the second largest Ebola outbreak in history. Th...

Genetic studies suggest HIV 1 group M crossed from chimpanzees to humans in southeastern Cameroon in the early 20th cent...

The first recorded Ebola outbreak occurred in Yambuku, Zaire now DR Congo, in 1976. The first recognised case was Mabalo...

A massive chikungunya outbreak occurred on Reunion Island in 2005 to 2006. Approximately 266,000 of the roughly 770,000 ...

Dengue fever has expanded dramatically in the 21st century. Approximately half the global population now lives in dengue...

West Nile Virus was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in August 1999 when an unusual cluster of encephalitis case...

Africa experienced fewer COVID cases and deaths than predicted by early models. The continent had reported roughly 12 mi...

Obesity was identified as a major risk factor for severe COVID 19 early in the pandemic. A CDC study found that approxim...

Measles has the highest R0 of any infectious disease at 12 to 18, meaning one case can infect up to 18 susceptible peopl...

Bivalent COVID boosters targeting the original strain and BA 4/BA 5 were authorized by the FDA in August 2022. The decis...

A new mpox outbreak caused by Clade I mpox virus emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023 to 2024. Clade I ha...

The Alpha variant B 1 1 7 was first identified in the United Kingdom in September 2020 and designated a Variant of Conce...

The 1918 Spanish Flu devastated Indigenous populations globally. In Alaska, some Alaska Native villages were nearly wipe...

The COVID pandemic caused a global orphanhood crisis. A modelling study estimated that over 10.5 million children had lo...

Indigenous populations suffered disproportionate mortality during the 1918 Spanish Flu. In Labrador, approximately one t...

Long COVID research accelerated after millions of people reported persistent symptoms following acute infection. The NIH...

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where wild poliovirus remains endemic. Pakistan reported 1 case in 2021,...