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A list of some of the deadliest diseases in human history.
The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, was one of history's deadliest pandemics, killing an estimated 30-60% of Europe's population in the 14th century and fundamentally reshaping medieval society.
It led to the creation of "plague doctors" who wore bird-like masks filled with aromatic herbs, believing the sweet smells would purify the air and prevent infection—a practice we now know was completely ineffective against the real culprit: bacteria spread by fleas on rats.
Smallpox was one of history's deadliest diseases, killing an estimated 300-500 million people in the 20th century alone before being eradicated globally in 1980 through vaccination efforts.
In the 18th century, some people tried to prevent it by deliberately infecting themselves with a milder form of the disease through a risky process called variolation, which involved inhaling powdered smallpox scabs or inserting pus from smallpox sores under the skin.
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920 was one of the deadliest in history, infecting an estimated 500 million people worldwide and killing 50-100 million.
It disproportionately killed young, healthy adults aged 20-40 due to their stronger immune systems triggering a "cytokine storm" that ravaged their bodies, while very young children and the elderly were more likely to survive.
HIV/AIDS has killed over 40 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.
Researchers believe it originated from a single chimpanzee infected with simian immunodeficiency virus in West Africa sometime in the early 20th century, before spreading globally and becoming a worldwide pandemic decades later.
Tuberculosis has been present in humans since ancient times, with evidence found in Egyptian mummies dating back to 3000-2400 BC.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was often associated with vampires, as people believed that when one family member died from the disease, they were draining the life from other infected family members who slowly lost their health.
Malaria has afflicted humanity for thousands of years, with the disease being described in ancient Chinese medical writings and evidence of malaria found in Egyptian mummies.
Malaria may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, as it was so pervasive in Rome that it was known as the "Roman fever".
Cholera has been around for centuries, with the first pandemic believed to have started in India in 1817 before spreading to other parts of the world.
In the 19th century, it was known as the "blue death" because severe dehydration from the disease could make a person's skin turn a bluish-gray color.
Typhoid fever has afflicted humans for thousands of years, with evidence found in ancient Greek writings from the 5th century BC and devastating pandemics occurring since the early 19th century.
One notable story is the case of "Typhoid Mary" Mallon, an asymptomatic carrier who worked as a cook in early 1900s New York and infected at least 51 people, leading to her forced quarantine for a total of 26 years until her death in 1938.
Yellow fever has afflicted humans for thousands of years, with major outbreaks occurring in the Americas, Africa, and Europe since the 17th century when it was likely introduced to the Americas through the slave trade.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was known as "Yellow Jack" and devastated military forces in tropical regions, playing a major role in Napoleon's failed attempt to regain control of Haiti and causing approximately 100,000-150,000 deaths along steamboat routes in the United States.
Polio has existed for thousands of years, with evidence of its effects found in ancient Egyptian paintings, but it only became a major epidemic in the 20th century due to improved sanitation paradoxically reducing childhood immunity.
In the 1950s, at the height of the polio epidemic, desperate parents tried experimental treatments like spraying their children's throats with picric acid or having them wear radioactive pendants.
The iron lung—a massive mechanical ventilator that encased patients' bodies—became an iconic symbol of the disease's devastating impact.
Ebola was first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the virus likely existed for thousands of years before that.
Fruit bats are believed to be the natural reservoir for the virus, able to carry and spread it without becoming sick themselves, while the virus has devastated gorilla populations, potentially killing up to 5,000 gorillas in some outbreaks.
Measles has existed for thousands of years, with evidence suggesting it evolved from rinderpest, a cattle disease, sometime between 500-1200 AD as human populations grew large enough to sustain the virus.
When measles was first introduced to populations with no prior immunity, like in the Americas in the 16th century, it devastated entire communities—for example, in 1529 measles killed two-thirds of Cuba's indigenous population who had previously survived smallpox.
Rabies has been known since around 2000 BC, with the first written record appearing in the Mesopotamian Codex of Eshnunna around 1930 BC.
In the 1500-1700s, people believed that applying a "mad stone" (a porous stone thought to have magical healing properties) to a bite wound could prevent rabies, and these stones were highly valued and passed down through generations despite having no actual medicinal effect.
Tetanus has been recognized since ancient times, with the disease being well known to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians who associated the characteristic muscle spasms with infected wounds.
In 1884, Italian scientists first proved that tetanus was transmissible by injecting pus from a human tetanus victim into rabbits which then developed the disease.
Diphtheria has been known since ancient times, with the first systematic description and distinction from other diseases credited to the Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi in the 9th-10th century, but it wasn't until 1884 that Edwin Klebs and Friedrich Loeffler identified the bacterium causing diphtheria.
In 1901, 10 out of 11 children in St. Louis died from contaminated diphtheria antitoxin derived from a horse that had died of tetanus, which led to federal regulation of biologic products in the United States.
Leprosy has afflicted humans for thousands of years, with evidence dating back to at least 2000 BC in India, but it wasn't until 1873 that Norwegian scientist Gerhard Armauer Hansen identified the bacterium that causes the disease.
In medieval Europe, people believed that leprosy could be transmitted through sight or breath, leading to extreme isolation of those affected, and some communities even held mock funerals for newly diagnosed patients, considering them to be legally and socially dead.
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