Virus World

As humans have spread across the world, so have infectious diseases. Even in this modern era, outbreaks are nearly constant, though not every outbreak reaches pandemic level as the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has. Today’s visualization outlines some of history’s most deadly pandemics, from the Antonine Plague to the current COVID-19 event.

Disease and illnesses have plagued humanity since the earliest days, our mortal flaw. However, it was not until the marked shift to agrarian communities that the scale and spread of these diseases increased dramatically. Widespread trade created new opportunities for human and animal interactions that sped up such epidemics. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, smallpox, and others first appeared during these early years. The more civilized humans became – with larger cities, more exotic trade routes, and increased contact with different populations of people, animals, and ecosystems – the more likely pandemics would occur. Here are some of the major pandemics that have occurred over time....

The US government has shut down all research at the nation's top biological warfare lab amid fears deadly microbes could leak into the water supply. Scientists at Fort Detrick, Maryland, study Ebola, the plague (caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis) and rabbit fever (caused by the bacterium tularemia). But last month US health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a cease-and-desist order citing concerns that the lab does not have 'sufficient systems in place to decontaminate wastewater.'

It comes just weeks after uproar over a new book on Lyme disease, Bitten, which suggested the tick-borne illness, now plaguing the US, was unwittingly unleashed on Americans by biological warfare researchers at Fort Detrick decades ago. The cease-and-desist notice automatically terminated the center's registration with the Federal Select Agent Program, which grants special permission for the study and possession disease-causing materials.  In order to get re-approved, the center will have to improve its decontamination processes.  Regulators also took issue with the lack of periodic re-training of staff who are handling the dangerous bacteria.

According to the local paper, the Frederick News Post, which first reported the cease-and-desist notice, Fort Detrick has been struggling to improve its decontamination processes since a flooding issue in May last year. Fort Detrick was one of just a few places in the US approved to study Ebola amid the fresh outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa.