Pandemics True or False

The Black Death pandemic ravaged Europe. There is not enough data available for an estimate of the worldwide death count.

The Black Death was the first, and worst, six years of a recurring plague outbreak in Europe. Waves continued until the 1690s.

The primary vector of infection for plague is flea bites, fleas who often came into contact with humans because of rats.

The bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

The third plague pandemic killed over 15 million in India, and more than 200 people still died per year up to the 1960s.

While cholera killed over 900,000 between 1961-2021, the vast majority of contagious disease deaths in the past 100 years have been viral, including HIV/AIDS, flu, and COVID.

The Columbian Exchange introduced smallpox, cholera, measles, diphtheria, flu, typhoid fever, and bubonic plague to the Americas.

An estimated 33 million people have died from HIV/AIDS. Upwards of 27 million people died from COVID-19.

There were further waves of the Spanish flu, but the lethality of the disease dropped on subsequent waves. The current seasonal flu is probably a variant of Spanish Flu.

It is estimated that the Spanish Flue killed 50-100 million people in just 18 months.

Young adults with good immune systems were most likely to die; they likely experienced "cytokine storms". Cytokines are the immune system's method of dealing with unknown bodily invaders. If the body overreacts, cytokines can destroy a person's own tissues.

Spain was neutral during World War I, so they were the first country to allow media coverage of the illness. International media then called it Spanish flu.

Cholera is an infection of the intestines by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.

More than 23 million people died of Cholera in India alone during this period.

This is only true in the video game series The Last of Us.