-
Robert Koch discovered that a particular germ can cause a diseases. Using a microscope, Koch used cow blood to study Anthrax, which is caused by Bacillus anthracis. He infected lab mice with the cow blood. The mice developed anthrax. This was the start of Robert Koch's Germ Theory. This made epidemiology stronger by discovering one bacteria can cause a disease and become something much bigger, such as a pandemic.(National Research Council of the National Academes,2004)
-
Irish immigrant, Mary Mallon, was the reason for the Typhoid outbreak in New York in 1906-1907. Mary, or Typhoid Mary it would later come to be, was a cook for 8 wealthy families, 7 of them infected with Salmonella typhi. Twenty-two people showed symptoms, some died. Dr. George Sober was the one who discovered that Mary was the source of the Typhoid and this was due to her not washing her hands after using the bathroom. (Androutsos, Karamanou, Marineli, & Tsoucalas, 2013)
-
Being the most severe pandemic in history, the 1918 Influenza pandemic was caused by H1N1. According to the CDC, the virus had "avian genes".(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018) 500 million people were infected and approx. 50 million had died. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018)
-
The first vaccine for anthrax for humans was developed due to the population being scared of anthrax first being discovered in the 1900's. It was first tested on a group of people who worked at a goat hair mill. The study showed that the vaccine was "92.5% effective in preventing cutaneous anthrax." (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020)
-
Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is an autoimmune virus, or a bloodborne pathogen, that attacks the immune system of its host. It first infected homosexual men in Los Angeles, CA, then was spread and infected others as well. Currently, there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS. (Hahn & Sharp, 2011)
-
Vaccines for Cholera or Vibrio cholerae infection were created due to people around the world contracting Cholera from having bad drinking water and sewage. Several countries, including Africa and India, have been affected by Cholera. Currently, the makers of the vaccine have stopped making this due to COVID-19 and the low demand for the vaccine. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020)
-
Introduced first in New York, the West Nile Virus (WNV) infected 62 people in 1999 and several horses and birds. WNV is transmitted by mosquitoes but not transmitted from person to person. (VDCI, 2021) Seven people had died from WNV in New York with the range of ages of people infected being 5-90. (Nash PhD. M.P.H, et al., 2001)
-
The World Health Organization puts plans in place for a new pandemic. Sever Acute Raspatory Syndrome is a viral lung infection that can cause pneumonia. (World Health Organization, n.d.) SARS lasted six months, starting in February, 2003 and ending in July of the same year. Infecting more than two dozen countries including North America, Europe, and Asia before the disease was done spreading. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013)
-
Influenza A, or H1N1, is a virus that affected more that 60 million people in the United States. Most of the people getting it were younger than the age of 60. This is thought that the people over 60 were already immune due to an older virus of the same strain. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)
-
A virus that causes hemorrhaging of the body from the inside. West Africa being the most impacted by Ebola, had reported 28,646 cases (Coltart, Ghinai, Heymann, Johnson, & Lindsey, 2017) and over 11,000 deaths. (Coltart, Ghinai, Heymann, Johnson, & Lindsey, 2017) Ebola spread to several different countries and is highly contagious with spreading though bodily fluids such as blood. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020)
-
Discovered in 1947 and spread by infected Mosquitoes, Zika virus can cause nervous system sicknesses, such as Gullain-Barre syndrome and microcephaly in infants if passed on from mother to child in the womb. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)
-
Starting in January in Wuhan, China, COVID-19, a raspatory viral disease, spread throughout the world rather quickly. Infecting people in the age range of about 16 to 90 years old, with people above 50 being the most at risk. Throughout the year, COVID-19 has been developing in front of everyone's eyes with new information everyday. Masks are mandated though out the world and travel had slowed, with some countries closing its boarders all together. (World Health Organization, 2020)
