Editing Infection (section)

===Historic pandemics===
{{See also|List of epidemics}}
[[File:Marseille-peste-Serre.jpg|thumb|The [[Great Plague of Marseille]] in 1720 killed 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding provinces.]]
With their potential for unpredictable and explosive impacts, infectious diseases have been major actors in human [[history]].<ref name=Fauci2012>{{cite journal |vauthors=Fauci AS, Morens DM |title=The perpetual challenge of infectious diseases |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |volume=366 |issue=5 |pages=454–61 |date=2012 |pmid=22296079 |doi=10.1056/NEJMra1108296 |doi-access=free }}</ref> A [[pandemic]] (or global [[epidemic]]) is a disease that affects people over an extensive geographical area. For example:
* [[Plague of Justinian]], from 541 to 542, killed between 50% and 60% of Europe's population.<ref>[http://eee.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/PlaguesandPeople/lecture3.html "Infectious and Epidemic Disease in History"] {{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20120712145547/http://eee.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/PlaguesandPeople/lecture3.html |date=July 12, 2012 }}</ref>
* The [[Black Death]] of 1347 to 1352 killed 25 million in Europe over five years. The plague reduced the old world population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.
* The introduction of [[smallpox]], measles, and [[typhus]] to the areas of Central and South America by European explorers during the 15th and 16th centuries caused pandemics among the native inhabitants. Between 1518 and 1568 disease pandemics are said to have caused the population of [[Mexico]] to fall from 20 million to 3 million.<ref name= Dobson>{{cite journal| vauthors = Dobson AP, Carter ER| year = 1996| url = http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3gwynne/BIO418/Dobson1996.pdf| title = Infectious Diseases and Human Population History| journal = BioScience| volume = 46| issue = 2| doi = 10.2307/1312814| pages = 115–26| jstor = 1312814| s2cid = 89361444 | doi-access = free| access-date = 2013-11-27| archive-date = 2016-03-03| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231520/http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3gwynne/BIO418/Dobson1996.pdf| url-status = live}}</ref>
* The first European [[influenza]] epidemic occurred between 1556 and 1560, with an estimated mortality rate of 20%.<ref name= Dobson/>
* [[Smallpox]] killed an estimated 60 million Europeans during the 18th century<ref>{{Cite web |title=NCpedia {{!}} NCpedia |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/smallpox |access-date=2023-11-17 |website=www.ncpedia.org |archive-date=2023-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328055149/https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/smallpox |url-status=live }}</ref> (approximately 400,000 per year).<ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=vacc.chapter.3 Smallpox and Vaccinia]. ''National Center for Biotechnology Information.'' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601172056/http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=vacc.chapter.3 |date=June 1, 2009 }}</ref> Up to 30% of those infected, including 80% of the children under 5 years of age, died from the disease, and one-third of the survivors went blind.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Smallpox: The Triumph over the Most Terrible of the Ministers of Death|first=Nicolau|last=Barquet|date=15 October 1997 |journal=Annals of Internal Medicine|volume=127|issue=8_Part_1|pages=635–42|doi=10.7326/0003-4819-127-8_Part_1-199710150-00010|pmid=9341063|s2cid=20357515}}</ref>
* In the 19th century, [[tuberculosis]] killed an estimated one-quarter of the adult population of Europe;<ref>[https://www.cdc.gov/TB/pubs/mdrtb/default.htm Multidrug-Resistant "Tuberculosis"]. ''Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.'' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309043219/http://www.cdc.gov/TB/pubs/mdrtb/default.htm |date=March 9, 2010 }}</ref> by 1918 one in six deaths in France were still caused by TB.
* The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (or the [[Spanish flu]]) killed 25–50 million people (about 2% of world population of 1.7 billion).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/influenza_main.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060220113240/http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/influenza_main.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 February 2006|title=Influenza of 1918 (Spanish Flu) and the US Navy|date=20 February 2006}}</ref> Today [[Influenza]] kills about 250,000 to 500,000 worldwide each year.

* In 2021, COVID-19 emerged as a major global health crisis, directly causing 8.7 million deaths, making it one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leading causes of death |url=https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimates/ghe-leading-causes-of-death |website=World Health Organization |access-date=2024-12-30}}</ref>