Epidemic disease has decimated populations and caused great suffering all over the world - and continues to do so, despite the availability of advanced medical treatments. While once life-threatening diseases such as polio, smallpox and cholera have been virtually eliminated, other epidemics have taken their place, posing an equal, if not greater, threat. This encyclopedia traces the roles that diseases have played throughout world history and offers information on more than 700 epidemics and their effects on civilization. Listed alphabetically by location of the outbreak, each entry includes when and where a particular epidemic began, how and why it happened, who it affected, how it spread and ran its course and its outcome and significance. Additional coverage includes information on the factors contributing to the spread of new epidemics and the growing problem of drug-resistant diseases, a foreword written by an expert on infectious diseases, and an appendix listing the entries alphabetically by disease.
Diseases and epidemics covered include: smallpox (France, 580); black death (Europe, 1347-1380s); yellow fever (Philadelphia, 1973); Congolese sleeping sickness (Congo, 1895-1906); anthrax, (Russia, 1979/United States, 2001); Malaria (Madagascar, 1987-1988); HIV/AIDS pandemic (worldwide-present); hantavirus (United States, 1993); onchocerciasis (river blindness) (Brazil, 1996); and ebola (Uganda, 2000).