Love In The Time of Cholera and Other Plagues Quiz

In the year 430 BC, just after a war between Athens and Sparta began, an epidemic hit Athens and lasted for five years. In the spring of that year, people in the port area of Piraeus began to fall sick. The disease then spread into the heart of Athens, which was overpopulated due to the rural community seeking refuge.

Historians wrote that people "were attacked by heats in the head, redness and inflammation of eyes and inward parts". That was followed by coughing and excessive vomiting. After five years, the plague finally ended with a third of the city's people dead, around 100,000 individuals. No cause of the plague has been completely identified.

The Antonine Plague began in AD 165 and affected almost the whole Roman Empire. It began after Roman soldiers returned home from fighting near the Tigris River where they encountered the illness. The symptoms were fever, diarrhea, coughing, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Those who were sick suffered for about two weeks. If they survived, they were found to be immune from further outbreaks.

It has been estimated that over 60 million people died during the 15 years that it lasted. This, along with enemy attacks and a poor economy, helped begin the fall of the Roman Empire.

The epidemic called Cocoliztli (an Aztec word for "pestilence") hit the area now called Mexico in AD 1545. Nobody knows what caused the devastating illness but it was suspected it came from European colonizers and entered a population already weak from drought-induced hunger.

The symptoms included jaundice coloring, convulsions, and profuse bleeding from ears and noses. The epidemic lasted for two years and killed just over 2 million people, or around fifty percent of the native population.

The bubonic plague swept through London in 1665 and 1666. The city lost almost 15% of its people at close to 100,000 lives. Rats, attracted to the filth of the city streets, carried fleas that caused the plague. Sufferers had swellings in the lymph nodes along with horrendous headaches and vomiting.

There was a 30% chance of death within two weeks. Treatments included bleeding, smoking, and sniffing vinegar. Many people, including King Charles II, fled the city. Just as the plague abated, the Great Fire of London began in September of 1666.

In 1770, the Russo-Turkish war was underway and Russian soldiers had come into contact with an illness near Maldova. Medical checkpoints, which had been utilized earlier, were ineffective during wartime and the illness spread to Moscow. As people developed fevers, swollen lymph glands, and nausea it was determined that bubonic plague had arrived.

The government tried to set up quarantines and the people began complaining. By 1771, over one thousand people a day were dying and the crowds grew to a riot level. Catherine the Great brought in Count Orlov and he set up effective quarantine measures and alleviated concerns.

By the time the plague dissipated, almost 100,000 people had died.

Yellow fever, or American plague as it was called, struck the city of Philadelphia in 1793. That summer, refugees from a yellow fever epidemic in the Caribbean came to Philadelphia and began spreading the viral disease as mosquitos carried it between humans.

The victims suffered from muscle pain and turned a sickly yellow color as liver and kidney functions failed. Internal bleeding and bloody vomiting often led to death. Officials believed slaves were immune from the disease and people of African heritage were recruited to care for the sick.

By the time cooler weather came, and mosquitos died out, over 5,000 people had expired.

A staggering 50 million people fell victim to the Spanish Flu beginning in 1918 with around one-fifth of them dying from it or from complications. It first started in the spring of 1918 but was rather mild with most people recovering from a fever. That fall, it was much more severe and attacked the lungs as they filled with fluid.

The worldwide spread was aided by WWI poor nutrition and cramped quarters. A large percentage of young adults was targeted and with no vaccine, efforts were used such as isolation, quarantine, and strict cleaning protocol. By spring of 1919, the flu strain no longer appeared.

In the first few months of 1957, a flu virus spread throughout China and nearby areas. Several months later, it had reached the United States. The illness brought on coughing and mild fevers and then often turned into life threatening forms of pneumonia.

It was determined to be caused by a strain of avian (bird) influenza. A vaccine was created and antibiotics treated secondary infections. However, by that time over one million people worldwide had died from the outbreak.

In 2009, a new strain of H1N1 virus, originating in Mexico, began to spread around the world. Unlike other forms of previous flu, this one generally created more havoc among younger people. It appears that generations above 55 or 60 years old had built up immunities over time. Symptoms included fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, and fatigue. Millions around the world were infected and roughly 300,000 died from it.

A vaccine was created and is included in annual vaccination shots.

The Ebola virus hit West Africa starting in 2014. The first case was in Guinea and then the disease spread to surrounding countries. It is thought that fruit bats are the hosts of the virus and is passed to humans through bodily fluids of the bat or animals the bat had infected. Symptoms include fever and fatigue and often morph to more serious complications such as internal and external bleeding and impaired liver functions. Containment measures and reduced transmission rates helped stop the spread. Over 10,000 people died from the disease.