Ebola Epidemic in West Africa
The largest Ebola outbreak in history swept through West Africa, killing over 11,000 people and exposing the devastating consequences of underfunded health systems.
In December 2013, a two-year-old boy in Guinea became the first known victim of what would become the largest Ebola outbreak in history. By March 2014, the virus — which causes hemorrhagic fever with mortality rates up to 70% — had spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Weak health infrastructure, distrust of authorities, and traditional burial practices involving contact with the dead accelerated transmission. By the time the WHO declared the outbreak over in June 2016, more than 28,600 people had been infected and over 11,300 had died. The crisis prompted a global reckoning about pandemic preparedness in the developing world and accelerated the development of Ebola vaccines, one of which was approved in 2019.
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A devastating epidemic struck Athens during the Peloponnesian War, killing an estimated quarter of the population including Pericles, and undermining Athenian democracy at its peak.
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A devastating pandemic — likely smallpox — swept through the Roman Empire, killing an estimated 5 million people and weakening Rome's military and economic foundations.
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The bubonic plague pandemic arrived in Europe, eventually killing an estimated 30-60% of the European population.
~1520Smallpox Devastates the Americas
European colonizers brought smallpox to the Americas, killing an estimated 90% of the Indigenous population and enabling the rapid conquest of vast civilizations.