Table 4.
Chronology of Known Pandemics.*
| Time | Name | Microbe | Death Toll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 430 BC | The plague of Athens | Rickettsia spp? Salmonella enterica spp? | 25% of population |
| 165–180 | Antonine plague | Smallpox? measles? | 5M |
| 541–542 | Plague of Justinian | Yersinia pestis (Gram-negative bacteria) | 30–50M |
| 735–737 | Japanese smallpox epidemic | Smallpox (DNA virus) | 1M |
| 1347–1351 | Black death | Yersinia pestis | 200M |
| 1520-onward | New world smallpox | Variola (smallpox) | 56M |
| 1629–1631 | Italian plague | Yersinia pestis | 1M |
| 1665–1666 | Great plague of London | Yersinia pestis | 100K |
| 1800s† | Yellow fever | Yellow fever (RNA virus) | 100–150K |
| 1817–1923 | Cholera pandemics | Vibrio cholera (Gram-negative bacteria) | >1M |
| 1885 | Third plague | Yersinia pestis | 12M |
| 1889–1890 | Russian flu | Influenza H2N2? (RNA virus) | 1M |
| 1918–1919 | Spanish flu | Influenza H1N1 | 40–50M |
| 1957–1958 | Asian flu | Influenza H2N2 | 1.1M |
| 1968–1970 | Hong Kong flu | Influenza H3N2 | 1M |
| 1981–present | AIDS | HIV (RNA virus) | 25–35M |
| 2002–2003 | SARS | SARS-CoV-1 (RNA virus) | 0.8K |
| 2009–2010 | Swine flu | Influenza H1N1 | 200K |
| 2014–2016 | Ebola | Ebola virus (RNA virus) | 11K |
| 2015–present | MERS | MERS-CoV (RNA virus) | 0.8K |
| 2019–present | COVID-19 | SARS-CoV-2 (RNA virus) | >0.5M |
Due to the lack of clear-cut definition of a pandemic, this table was compiled based on commonalities in multiple references.32–44
There were more than 20 waves of Yellow fever in the 1800s; hence, a precise end-date cannot be given.
AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome; BC, before Christ; COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid; flu, influenza; H1N1, hemagglutinin-1 neuraminidase-1; H2N2, hemagglutinin-2 neuraminidase-2; H3N2, hemagglutinin-3 neuraminidase-2; HIV, human immune deficiency virus; K, thousands; M, millions; MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome; MERS-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; RNA, ribonucleic acid; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome; SARS CoV-1, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-1; SARS CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2.