History of Epidemics
Smallpox has infected humans for thousands of years and is one of the deadliest diseases to date. One of the first epidemics of smallpox was during the Peloponnesian War in Athens, Greece. It killed 30,000 people. In the Roman empire, it is believed that the Antonine Plague and the Plague of Cyprian were caused by smallpox. During the Middle Ages in Europe, smallpox was a common killer as sanitation was very low. When the Europeans came to the Americas, they brought the smallpox virus with them and it killed millions of the native population. It was first influenced by Hernain Cortez when he landed in Mexico. He encountered the Aztecs and his men passed the disease on to the Aztecs. It quickly spread throughout the empire and quickly killed about 25% of the population. Smallpox similarly destroyed the populations of the Inca empire and North American tribes. Smallpox was one of the reasons the Europeans were able to conquer the empires of the Americas. An increase in medical knowledge and improved medical practices led to the creation of vaccines in the 19th century. Vaccination programs were created by governments to eradicate smallpox in the 19th and 20th centuries. On May 8, 1980 smallpox was declared eradicated by the WHO. Today the only known remaining stocks of the virus are in the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia and the VECTOR Institute in Koltsovo, Russia.