Viral epidemics in human history presentation. History of global human epidemics. the most famous epidemics in the history of mankind let's take a moment away from contemplating modern problems - financial - presentation. Pathogens of infectious

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Introduction

The long history of mankind is inseparable from the history of numerous epidemics that constantly accompanied it on planet Earth, and the number of their victims sometimes significantly exceeded all losses during military operations. Throughout its existence, the human race has been plagued by all kinds of epidemics of various diseases. It is obvious that the worse living conditions and poor health of some population groups, both in the poorest and non-poor countries, create conditions for the emergence, development and spread of infectious diseases. Today, people are threatened by “old and new” infectious diseases, for which doctors have developed and are implementing research programs aimed at protecting people from infections.

The work will examine the history of global human epidemics in order to understand the seriousness of the problem and use the experience of previous generations in the fight against epidemics.

Whatsuchepidemic

An epidemic is a widespread spread of any disease, initially an infectious disease (plague, smallpox, typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, influenza).

The epidemic process consists of continuous transmission of the disease in a community. For an epidemic process to occur, three factors are necessary:

The source of the causative agent of an infectious process or the cause of a non-infectious disease;

Transmission mechanisms;

People susceptible to the disease.

The occurrence and course of epidemics is influenced by both processes occurring in natural conditions (natural focality, epizootics, etc.) and social factors (municipal improvement, living conditions, health care, etc.).

Epidemics and methods of combating them are studied by a branch of medicine called epidemiology.

For all infectious diseases, from the moment of conception to the appearance of the first visible signs of the disease, a certain time passes, called the incubation period. The duration of this period varies for different infections - from several hours to several months. Depending on the nature of the disease, the main mechanisms of transmission of the infectious agent during an epidemic may be:

fecal-oral, realized through water, food or household contact (for example, with dysentery and typhoid fever);

airborne (for example, with influenza);

transmissible (for malaria and typhus);

contact (for AIDS, rabies).

The largestepidemics

global epidemic pneumonia

The Justinian Plague, which originated in the Eastern Roman Empire and spread throughout the Middle East. More than 20 million people died from this epidemic.

The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague that swept through medieval Europe in the 14th century. Killed 50 million people.

“Spanish flu” (“Spanish flu”). As a result of the epidemic, after the First World War, out of 200 million people infected, 41.8 million people died.

Storyepidemics

In ancient times, epidemics were perceived by people as God's punishment, sent down for their many sins. Thus, even in Muslim mythology, there is a legend about how Pharaoh Firaun and his people were punished for their disobedience to God during the prophecy of Musa (Moses). As a result of the pestilence - an unknown disease allegedly sent by the Almighty - many ordinary people close to Firaun died in Egypt, including his own son. There are many cases in history when entire cities and even countries died out as a result of epidemics. Some of these misfortunes looked very mysterious. For example, the terrible epidemic that broke out in Athens in 451 BC. e. during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, which claimed the lives of one third of the entire population of Athens within a year, which is why, in fact, they were defeated. On the seventh or ninth day, the patients died from internal heat. The disease that engulfed Athens disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, remaining a mystery to doctors and historians to this day. The spread of infections and the emergence of epidemics were facilitated by a new sedentary lifestyle of humans, the development of agriculture and cattle breeding, and an increase in population density. The first documented epidemic, known as the Justinian Plague, occurred in the 6th century. in the Byzantine Empire and covered many countries, killing about 100 million people over half a century. Certain regions of Europe, such as Italy, were almost depopulated and became easy prey for conquerors. Coming out of Egypt, the plague devastated almost all the countries of the Mediterranean and persisted here for about 60 years. At the height of the pandemic, in 542, many hundreds of people died daily in Constantinople alone. In general, one of the most terrible and destructive epidemics in human history was the plague pandemic.

The second pandemic occurred about six centuries ago. Then the bubonic plague was raging, which, according to various sources, then destroyed approximately a third of the population of Asia and almost half of the population of Europe. Unfortunately, even after more than 600 years, the plague has not been completely defeated. Only in the 20th century. More than 13 million people worldwide have died from this disease. Even in Egyptian papyrus 4 thousand years BC. e. described such a terrible disease as smallpox. Traces of smallpox virus infection were found on the mummy of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V, who lived in the 12th century. BC e. In the past, smallpox was the most dangerous and widespread disease. For centuries it raged in Asia, from where, according to historians, in the 6th century. n. e. the Saracens brought it to Europe. During epidemics, smallpox affected everyone, regardless of age or position in society. According to available data, it caused the death of Russian Emperor Peter II, Austrian Emperor Joseph, Kings of France Louis XIV, Louis XV, King of the Netherlands William II of Orange, Queen Anne of England.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, malaria began to plague humanity on a huge scale. Thus, in pre-revolutionary Russia, about 5 million people fell ill with malaria every year. During the civil war and in the next few years, malaria became a real scourge in our country. In 1923, in some areas of the Caucasus and Turkestan, a very real threat of complete extinction arose. During the Second World War, in the British and American troops operating at that time in the southwestern zone of the Pacific Ocean, mortality from malaria exceeded combat losses. And even today, about 0.5 billion people fall ill with malaria every year, of which 1 to 2.7 million die.

At the beginning of the last century, an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out. Over 180 thousand new patients were registered annually. During the Second World War, typhus also regained its former strength. In Russia alone, over 70 percent of the population of some German-occupied territories suffered from it. Often in the 20th century. Cholera was gathering its terrible harvest. The largest outbreak of this disease occurred during World War II. But cholera did not subside even in peacetime. Also memorable are the outbreaks of the epidemic that emerged in 1970 in the USSR in a number of southern cities.

Since the first quarter of the last century, mass diseases of yellow fever began to occur frequently. In Sudan in 1940, over 15 thousand cases of disease were registered, of which more than 10% were fatal. In 1960, 8 thousand people died from this disease in Ethiopia. Then yellow fever epidemics spread not only to traditionally endemic areas with a hot, humid climate (Africa, South America), but also to a number of other countries. The smallpox epidemic in Japan (VIII-XIX centuries) became one of the reasons for the triumphant spread of Buddhism. However, much more often, xenophobia and cruelty became accompaniments of epidemics. For example, AIDS was at first considered exclusively a “disease of homosexuals”, not dangerous for ordinary people. Therefore, the first name of the “plague of the twentieth century” was “Lack of immunity transmitted by homosexuals” (Gay Related Immune Deficiency). At the end of the 15th century. The first epidemic was recorded, which can be considered a side effect of the great geographical discoveries - the beginning of the process of globalization. The causative agent of syphilis, the pale spirochete, came to Europe from the recently discovered America. It was the worst of the sexually transmitted diseases. The authority of religion in society increased sharply - because syphilis was considered a punishment from God for sinners.

EpidemicsVthe neweststories

At the cost of enormous sacrifices and efforts, humanity has learned to fight many diseases. A mysterious story that occurred in Philadelphia in the summer of 1976 became widely known. Then 182 participants in the convention of the American Legion organization were struck by an unknown disease. 29 of them died. Later, it was possible to establish a reliable cause of Legionnaires' disease. It turned out to be a natural bacterium, given the Latin name Legionella, which acquired the ability to multiply in ordinary household air conditioners. One recent example is a major epidemic among visitors to a flower auction in Holland (1999), during which 188 people fell ill, of whom 16 died. And here there are no air conditioners.

In the mid-60s. last century, Ebola fever was first registered - one of the most terrible viral diseases, leaving almost no hope for recovery for the sick person (the mortality rate from it is 50-90%). The rare survivors are prohibited from communicating with others, and their property is burned. Humanity has already experienced several epidemics of this disease (in Zaire, Uganda). But especially dangerous at the end of the 20th century. the spread of the AIDS epidemic, which has now become a pandemic. Today on our planet, about 15-17 thousand people become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus every day, i.e. 1 person every 6-7 seconds. Moreover, what is very important, about half of them are young people aged 15 to 24 years. The HIV pandemic has captured all countries and continents, and it has not spared Russia. 20 years after its appearance, more than 60 million people on the planet are carriers of HIV infection (the first stage of fatal AIDS). Terrible epidemics on our planet do not stop today. After the shock of AIDS, an unusual disease appeared that struck the inhabitants of the island of Madagascar. The symptoms of the disease, which has affected several thousand people and claimed hundreds of lives, are similar to those of the common cold, but the person may not survive even two days. One strange feature was noted here - the disease mostly affected people of one ethnic group. This is atypical pneumonia.

Finally, quite recently, dozens of people became infected with “bird flu” from infected birds, many of whom died. The mortality rate from this virus is 80%, which is significantly higher than even the plague or smallpox. Scientists believe that this virus is thousands of times more dangerous than what we call “SARS”, the lethality of which is not so great.

At the beginning of the 21st century, we were faced with a new phenomenon - bioterrorism. As in the case of natural epidemics, humanity was unprepared for such a new terrible scenario. This was the first effective bioterrorist action with the deliberate use of the causative agent of a particularly dangerous infection - anthrax (Bacillus anthracis).

One of the phenomena of globalization is the sexual revolution and the unlimited exploitation of people in the sexual services market. These processes have serious consequences for the health of people infected with AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

Conclusion

Despite the vast experience of mankind, the “old” infectious diseases - smallpox and plague - still pose a great danger to people. Smallpox today could be revived in a variety of ways, including jumping to humans from the great apes. Even a “banal” flu today can cause severe epidemics or even pandemics. Taking into account that approximately every 30 years new and more “dangerous” flu mutants appear on the planet, scientists expect the arrival in the first decade of the 21st century of a new pathogen that can cause a severe epidemic like the “Spanish flu”. It is necessary to join forces to counter the threat of epidemics of “old and new” infectious diseases. A special place in the spread of infectious diseases is occupied by patterns of changes in the social status and behavior of the population, for example, due to the spread of alcohol and drug addiction. Finally, for a number of indicators and reasons, AIDS remains today one of the main real problems facing humanity, the solution to which has not yet been found.

The economic damage from infectious diseases is enormous, and experts find it difficult to even give approximate figures for global damage. The fact is that epidemics cause both direct and indirect damage, which is most difficult to assess.

Listliterature

Voronkov N.A. Fundamentals of general ecology. - M., 2009.

Girusov E.V. Fundamentals of social ecology. M., 2010.

Gorelov A.A. Ecology. M., 2006

Posted on Allbest.ru

Factors of occurrence

The basis of an epidemic caused by social and biological factors is the epidemic process, that is, the continuous process of transmission of the infectious agent and a continuous chain of successively developing and interconnected infectious conditions (disease, bacterial carriage).

Slide 4

Sometimes the spread of the disease has the nature of a pandemic, that is, it covers the territories of several countries or continents under certain natural or social and hygienic conditions. A relatively high incidence rate can be recorded in a certain area for a long period. The occurrence and course of an epidemic is influenced both by processes occurring in natural conditions (natural focality, epizootics, etc.) and mainly by social factors (municipal improvement, living conditions, health care, etc.).

Slide 5

Ways of spread of infection

1. Depending on the nature of the disease, the main routes of spread of infection during an epidemic may be:
- water and food (for dysentery and typhoid fever);
- airborne droplets (for influenza);
- transmissible (for malaria and typhus).
2. Several routes of pathogen transmission often play a role.

Slide 6

Epidemics are one of the most destructive natural phenomena for humans.

Statistics show that infectious diseases claim more lives than wars.
Cholera, painting from 1866

Slide 7

Features of the infection

Some infectious diseases are unique to humans, some are common to humans and animals: anthrax, glanders, foot and mouth disease, psittacosis, tularemia, etc.

Slide 8

The largest epidemics in human history

Slide 9

Spanish flu (1918 - 1919)

A severe influenza epidemic that probably began in America and spread to other continents. This rapid spread was facilitated by the high virulence of the influenza virus strain and the war. There is probably no need to explain in detail the role of the latter factor in the rapid intercontinental spread of the disease. According to estimates, this epidemic claimed from 50 to 100 million lives in six months. In addition, not only children or the elderly, but also the working-age young population suffered from the flu at that time. Its share was almost 8%. Compare these figures with the population at that time - 1.8 billion. Scientists predicted that if such a pandemic were to occur today, 350 million people would become victims. Hospitals would not be able to cope with the large influx of patients, and not everyone would have received medical care.

Slide 10

"Black Death" XIV-XV centuries

This name was given to the bubonic plague, which over the centuries claimed about a third of the then population of Europe - 34 million people. There were the same number of plague victims in China and India. The epidemic has not spared the Middle East either. For 1348-1349 in Syria, 400 thousand people died from the disease; many died in African countries. It can be said that the plague took 100 million lives in 100 years. The same number died from the Spanish flu, but only within six months! The plague is caused by the pathogen Y. pestis. It has three forms: bubonic, pulmonary and septic. Due to the similarity of the clinic, patients who actually died from anthrax or hemorrhagic fevers could be counted as plague victims. Therefore, it is impossible to completely attribute medieval epidemics to the plague.

Slide 11

Malaria. Flu

Malaria. To this day, Malaria remains the most dangerous killer. Every day, 2,800 children die from it, and per year - 2.7 million people worldwide. Worst of all, the disease was contained by the widespread use of DDT, which killed the carriers, the malaria mosquitoes. And now the use of DDT is banned in many countries. That's why Malaria continues to kill.
Flu. Every year, 36 thousand people die from the flu. For comparison: 15 thousand people die from AIDS.

Slide 12

AIDS. 1981

Since 1981, when AIDS was first diagnosed (the pathogen itself was discovered several years later), 25 million people have died from the disease. It seems a little compared to how many die from the flu, but people themselves are responsible for the spread of this disease. The epidemic could be easily stopped if people changed their behavior. After all, AIDS is not transmitted either by airborne droplets or through water or food.

Slide 13

Polio

Researchers suspect that polio has plagued humanity for thousands of years, paralyzing and killing thousands of children. In 1952, there were an estimated 58,000 cases of polio in the United States, with one-third of the patients paralyzed and more than 3,000 deaths. The effectiveness of vaccine prevention has been demonstrated by the fact that since 1955, no cases of polio have been reported in many countries. However, individual cases of the disease still occur, mainly in those countries where vaccination is incomplete.

Slide 14

Preventive measures during epidemics

Patients with any infection should immediately consult a doctor, avoid close contact with people as much as possible, do not go to work and leave home for the period prescribed by the doctor.
All relatives and neighbors of patients must strictly observe the rules of personal hygiene. This includes, in particular, frequent hand washing with soap and regularly wiping hands with an alcohol solution, especially after contact with the sick person or things he touched.
Persons in contact with the patient should observe personal hygiene rules.
Every patient should cover their face with a handkerchief when sneezing or coughing and, preferably, wear a bandage on their face to cover their nose and mouth. Medical workers and relatives in contact with him should do the same.
It is prohibited to use dishes, towels and bedding used by the patient or other people. These items should be washed and washed separately from other items. Wash dishes and do laundry using rubber gloves.
If any health problems arise in people who are in contact with the patient, they should immediately consult a doctor.
Subject to these rules, people who are in close contact with the patient may not limit their movements outside the apartment or house.

Slide 15

Key activities during the epidemic

In case of mass infectious diseases, there is always an epidemic focus. In this outbreak, a set of measures is being carried out aimed at localizing and eliminating the disease
Measures to eliminate the epidemic focus depend on the type of pathogen and the method of origin of the outbreak. The time of year and day, meteorological conditions, the degree of preparedness of formations and institutions, and the availability of forces and means have a great influence on the conduct of work. The work of all services is based on data from general reconnaissance of the source of infection, during which medical (including epidemic) reconnaissance is also carried out (the scale of the lesion, the approximate number of affected people, the boundaries of the outbreak, etc. are determined).

Slide 16

Sanitizing people;
- disinfection of clothes, shoes, care items;
- identification of sick and suspected cases; enhanced medical surveillance of infected people, their isolation, hospitalization and treatment;

Slide 17

Disinfection of territory, structures, transport, residential and public premises;
- establishment of an anti-epidemic regime for the operation of treatment-and-prophylactic and other medical institutions;
- disinfection of food waste, wastewater and waste products of sick and healthy people;
- sanitary supervision over the operating hours of life support enterprises, industry and transport;
- strict adherence to sanitary and hygienic standards and rules, including thorough hand washing with soap and disinfectants, drinking only boiled water, eating in certain places, using protective clothing (personal protective equipment);
- carrying out sanitary educational work.

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Introduction Epidemic (Greek ἐπιδημία - general disease) is the widespread spread of any infectious disease (plague, smallpox, typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, influenza). Infectious diseases are widespread throughout the world and are caused by various microorganisms. “Contagious” diseases have been known since ancient times; information about them can be found in the oldest written monuments: in the Indian Vedas, the works of Ancient China and Ancient Egypt.

Despite all protective measures, since the beginning of the 21st century, every country in the world has had at least one epidemic. The largest in recent times is the H 1 N 1 flu (which was originally called swine flu, then renamed due to its unreasonableness and unpleasant consequences for agriculture). In fact, it was a pandemic: the disease spread across the planet from Brazil to Iceland and claimed about 284 thousand lives.

A mysterious story that took place in Philadelphia (USA, Pennsylvania) in the summer of 1976 became widely known. Then 182 participants in the convention of the American Legion organization were struck by an unknown disease. 29 of them died. In this regard, newspapers wrote about secret tests of biological weapons, about bacteriological sabotage by the intelligence services of Eastern European countries, assumptions and hints were made. Later, it was possible to establish a reliable cause of Legionnaires' disease. It turned out to be a natural bacterium, given the Latin name Legionella, which acquired the ability to multiply in ordinary household air conditioners. Sporadic cases and dozens of epidemiological outbreaks continue to be detected annually in various regions. One recent example is a major epidemic among visitors to a flower auction in Holland (1999), during which 188 people fell ill, of whom 16 died. And here there are no air conditioners.

AIDS was transmitted to humans from chimpanzees. It is believed that this also happened during hunting and working with an infected body - the simian immunodeficiency virus ended up in the human body and mutated into the form that is now called HIV. Today on our planet, about 15-17 thousand people become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus every day, i.e. 1 person every 67 seconds. Moreover, what is very important, about half of them are young people aged 15 to 24 years. The HIV pandemic has captured all countries and continents, and it has not spared Russia. 20 years after its appearance, more than 60 million people on the planet are carriers of HIV infection (the first stage of fatal AIDS).

The newest infection on the list of candidate epidemics of the 21st century, Middle East respiratory syndrome, was discovered along with the first case of infection in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The first outbreak of the then new disease showed a mortality rate of 50%. By October 2013, there were already 145 cases of MERS in the world with a mortality rate of up to 40%. The virus was in full force in South Korea. The first case of MERS in the new outbreak was recorded on May 20, 2015. At the moment, the epidemic in the country has been practically suppressed, but single infections do not allow the Seoul authorities to consider the incident over. According to South Korean authorities, MERS has infected 183 people and caused 33 deaths, with more than 2,000 people in quarantine.

Instead of concluding, I would like to quote a memo from the World Health Organization regarding the prevention of swine flu. Among other instructions, it recommends “washing your hands thoroughly and often with soap and water, and adopting a healthy lifestyle, including getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, and being physically active.” The memo also urges you to refrain from contact with people who show signs of illness (fever, cough). At the first manifestation of symptoms, you should consult a doctor, avoid contact with loved ones and refrain from visiting work or public places. These tips remain useful regardless of whether this or that dangerous disease is raging somewhere nearby or on the other side of the world. Compliance with the rules of basic hygiene and common sense is in most cases enough to maintain your health. Even Michel de Nostredame in the middle of the 16th century “treated” people from the bubonic plague with useless lavender tablets, ordering them to perform normal hygiene procedures before taking them. People began to take baths, wash their hands before eating, and make fresh beds every day. From the settlements and towns where Nostradamus carried out his medical activities, the plague retreated. The secret, as you understand, is not in the pills.

The most famous epidemics

Prepared by 7th grade student: Alexey Barinov

Plague of Thucydides

Very little information has been preserved about the epidemics of antiquity. Probably the largest of these was the Plague of Thucydides, which broke out in Athens from 431 to 427 BC. The epidemic began during the Peloponnesian War, when Athens was overcrowded with refugees. Several outbreaks of the disease cost the city thirty thousand inhabitants. Among the victims of the disease was one of the fathers of Athenian democracy, Pericles. The Greek historian Thucydides, who himself suffered the disease but survived, spoke in detail about the tragedy of Athens. Modern scientists claim that the cause of the epidemic was not the plague, but a combination of measles and typhoid.

Justinian's plague

The Justinian plague is the oldest pandemic about which more or less reliable information has reached us. The disease started in the Nile Delta. From plague-stricken Egypt, plague carriers - rats and fleas - sailed to Constantinople on ships with wheat. The beginning of the nightmare occurred precisely during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. The first plague fire raged on the territory of the then civilized world for almost two centuries, from 541 to 750 AD. In Europe, according to various sources, from 25 to 50 million people died. In North Africa, Central Asia and Arabia - twice as much.

Black pox

China and Japan suffered no less than Europe. In the 4th century, an epidemic of smallpox swept across China, and in the 6th century it reached Korea. In 737, smallpox killed about 30% of the population in Japan. The disease left such a deep mark on the history of Asian peoples that the Indians even had a separate goddess of smallpox - Mariatale. But in 1796, the English doctor Edward Jenner invented vaccination. And now it is officially believed that the smallpox virus exists in only two laboratories in the world.

Black Death

The second tour of the plague around the world occurred in the Middle Ages. Starting this time from China and India, the epidemic spread throughout Asia, North Africa and even reached Greenland. Half the population of Italy died due to the disease, every nine out of ten residents of London and more than a million residents of Germany became victims of the disease. By 1386, only five people remained alive in the Russian city of Smolensk. In total, Europe lost about a third of its population. Modern sanitation rules and... fires came to the rescue of people. Thus, in London, the plague disappeared after a severe fire in 1666.

English sweat

The most famous epidemic with a still unknown cause. Tudor England suffered the most from it between 1485 and 1551. In August 1485, Henry Tudor won the Battle of Bosworth, entered London and became King Henry VII. His French and Breton mercenaries brought an unknown deadly disease to the island. Francis Bacon and Thomas More wrote about this disease. Historians have described it as the English plague or relapsing fever. But the reasons for the English sweat, which raged in Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, still remain unclear.

Dance of St. Vitus

In July 1518, in Strasbourg, a woman named Troffea went out into the street and began to perform dance steps, which lasted for several days. By the end of the first week, 34 local residents had joined. Then the crowd of dancers grew to 400 participants. This strange disease was called the “dancing plague” or “epidemic of 1518”. Experts believe that the cause of such mass phenomena was mold spores that got into the bread and formed in stacks of wet rye. During this most epidemic in world history, hundreds of people literally danced to death.

The cholera pandemic began in 1817 in Southeast Asia and killed forty million people in India alone. Soon cholera reached Europe. Despite the fact that medicine had greatly advanced by that time, in London alone about seven thousand people died from cholera, and in Europe as a whole more than one hundred thousand. Five outbreaks of the disease occurred in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. One of them forced Alexander Pushkin to sit endlessly on the Boldino estate, waiting out the cholera quarantine. Is it necessary to explain what the words “Boldino Autumn” mean for Russian literature?

Spanish flu

The Spanish Flu epidemic was most likely the largest influenza pandemic in human history. In 1918-1919, in just eighteen months, up to 100 million people, or 5% of the world's population, died. About 30% of the world's population have had the Spanish flu. The epidemic began in the last months of the First World War and quickly eclipsed this largest bloodshed in terms of casualties. In Barcelona, 1,200 people died every day. In Australia, a doctor counted 26 funeral processions in one hour on one street alone. Entire villages from Alaska to South Africa died out.

The first outbreak of this disease was documented in 1976 in neighboring areas of Sudan and Zaire. The disease was named after a river in that region of Africa. The Ebola virus is incredibly contagious, with a death rate of up to 90% even today. There is still no specific treatment or vaccine for Ebola. The only way to control epidemic outbreaks is strict quarantine. And despite this, in 2014, the worst Ebola epidemic in history broke out in West Africa. The number of victims has already exceeded a thousand.

Bird flu

The first epidemic of the post-information era. Its appearance and development took place with television cameras turned on and was broadcast on the Internet in real time. Avian influenza has been known since the 19th century. However, the first case of human infection with the H5N1 influenza strain was recorded in Hong Kong only in 1997. The whole world put on gauze bandages, switched to pork and raced to get injections. Vaccination, personal hygiene and quarantine measures did their job: according to the World Health Organization, from February 2003 to February 2008, only 227 cases of human infection with the avian influenza virus became fatal.

A pure culture of viruses, bacteria, other microorganisms or a cell culture isolated at a certain time and place.