Patho-Factlets
Mary II (of the College of William & Mary) died of typhoid fever. (William died later of injuries from falling off a horse while hunting.) Two hundred years later, Wilbur Wright died of typhoid four years after the events at Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills.
Plague or ebola killed more than half of Athenians, including Pericles, leading to the fall of Athens.
Roman fell presumably from lead poisoning of its ruling classes: infertility and early death. But this happened not before anthrax killed tens of thousands in 125 AD. Roman influence in North Africa ended when nearly a million died of malaria. As many as 2,000 died per day in Rome in 169 AD of plague - including Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
The Holy Roman Empire under Justinian in 540 AD was ravaged by bubonic plague. More than 10,000 died per day in Central Europe. During these years, Judeo-Christian medicine supplanted prevailing folk remedies, and resulted in many converts to Judeism and Christendom.
Measles and smallpox wiped out 95% of native South Americans in the early 1500's leaving the continent safe for the Spanish to settle with families. For example, Cortez took over Mexico City when 1,000 Aztecs per day were dying. The Spanish were thought to be gods because the disease didn't affect them. Elsewhere, North American natives, who were much more resistant to these diseases, required another 100 years until better armament allowed Europeans to make inroads against natives possessing the powerful long-bow.
At least one person aboard Columbus's first returning ship carried syphilis, which rapidly spread and generally killed within several months. Henry VIII seemed to have syphilis as a complicating factor later in his life, which ended in 1547.
Seventy percent of the 300,000 core troops that marched with Napoleon out of France died of typhus before reaching Moscow. Moscovites locked the French out for a couple of more weeks, allowing typhus to kill nearly half of the remaining invaders. So Napoleon took Moscow with less than 50,000 troops. Just think: 250,000 died along the way! A new support contingent of 15,000 French arrived, but nearly 10,000 died in the first month of occupation of the Russian city. In summary, 315,000 troops left France, and only 3,000 returned! Some victory!
From 1104 to 1110 AD, plague killed more than 90% of Europeans, and, coincidently all those northern Europeans who were genetically predisposed to leprosy. It is now rare for someone of northern European extraction to contract leprosy. Boccaccio's "Dicameron" is written in this context. Read his preface for an insight into the panic that overwhelmed the population.
Malaria brought the close of Jamestown and the colony's move to Middletown Plantation, soon renamed Williamsburg. The same mosquito species are around today. Where is the malaria?
In 1724, 30% of the population of Williamsburg died of typhoid fever in August.
During the Civil War, 90% of the deaths on both sides were due to disease rather than direct death from military trauma. While bayonettes killed less than 110 outright, minor scratches from other sources often festered into mortal wounds.
Nearly a third to half of all babies born in the USA in 1900 never saw their 5th birthday. Whooping cough, dyphtheria, and both rheumatic fever and scarlet fever (strep throat gone really serious) were major killers. Many women died from 'childbirth fever' (a vaginal strep infection).
In 1952, nearly 200,000 Americans contracted polio. In 1953, about 100 caught the disease. Salk's vaccine turned the tide here, while Sabin talked the Soviets into using his vaccine, which saved a similar number of lives behind the Iron Curtain.
In 1960, Staph. aureus was a scourge of hospitals. In 1980, it was nearly unknown. The reason for the decline is a mystery.
In the early 1980's, AIDS raised its head. Origin? From other host species? From experimental interspecies organ transplants, which also began at that time in Central and South Africa. The top two killers of New Yorkers between 15 and 35 are AIDS and car accidents.
In 1993, several ornithologically oriented virologists discovered that serotypes of prevailing influenza strains had a north-south pattern on the map. These strains were in high numbers in the gastro-intestinal tracts of migrating water fowl. Flu is an orphan virus in waterfowl. Eskimos have flu in the summer. Chicagoans and New Yorkers have the flu in Fall and Spring. W&M has it from mid-October to mid-March, as the migrants winter over near here on the James River.
Examples of How Disease Altered History