Pandemics in history: only two pathogens were more deadly than the coronavirus

Created: 01/10/2022, 10:29 PM

From: Bettina Menzel

A concert at the Palacio De Vistalegre in Madrid in November 2021. In times of the pandemic, crowds are an unusual sight.

© Jon Imanol Reino / NurPhoto / Imago

There are now over five million corona deaths worldwide.

Only two pathogens have been more deadly in human history.

Baltimore, Maryland - There are already 5,492,243 confirmed corona deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University (as of January 10, 2022).

That corresponds to about half of all residents of Austria.

However, the actual number of corona deaths could be three times higher, estimates the World Health Organization.

That would be more than 15 million people.

Nevertheless, there are two more pathogens in human history that have caused more deaths.

One is still rampant today.

Spanish flu killed 50 million

Every year people die of seasonal flu, the WHO estimates the number at around 290,000 to 650,000.

Special flu forms such as the Hong Kong flu or the Asian flu came to one million deaths each.

But the Spanish flu surpassed everything: It spread from 1918 to 1920 and claimed a total of around 50 million deaths.

Some estimates even assume up to 100 million deaths.

She is considered the "mother of all pandemics".

Despite its name, it probably had its origin not in Spain, but in the USA.

According to experts, the likelihood of another influenza pandemic is “only a matter of time”.

This virus is more deadly than Corona - and is still rampant today

Freddie Mercury died of the virus, actor Charlie Sheen and basketball star "Magic" Johnson are open about the disease. We are talking about acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS for short. The HI virus was first discovered in 1981, but is probably much older. Almost 40 million people around the world have died of AIDS so far. A vaccine has not yet been found, but there are now effective drugs that can at least stop the disease. They can even greatly reduce the risk of transmission.

But researchers have already found an approach to curing the disease.

There is great hope in gene therapy.

The microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier and the US biochemist Jennifer Doudna received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for their “gene scissors” approach.

This makes it possible to cut out the blueprint for the HIV virus from the genome of the infected cell and thus defeat the virus.

Other dangerous, worldwide pathogens are, for example, Ebola, hepatitis B and C or dengue fever.

There are already vaccines against Ebola and the hepatitis B virus, and research is still being carried out into dengue fever.

After all, a newly discovered active ingredient has the potential to become a drug against dengue.