A pandemic is the worst-case scenario in the field of infectious diseases.

The term "pandemic" should not be thrown around lightly or casually. It is a

word that can elicit irrational fear or an unreasonable acceptance that the
struggle is finished, causing unneeded suffering. But how can this so called
pandemic instill terror in people? What made government health agencies,
international aid organizations and scientists so wary of it? What is a
pandemic in the first place? In simple terms, it is a disease outbreak that
spreads globally and causes a high degree of mortality. When the number of
people infected with a disease exceeds the predicted amount in a certain
region, authorities consider the disease to be an epidemic. A pandemic can
occur when an infection spreads across multiple countries at the same time, it
can be caused by a novel virus strain or subtype that is easily transmitted
between humans. Pandemics have been more common over time as humanity
became more civilized, built cities, established trade routes, fought wars, and
so on.
However, outbreaks enlighten us about the modern lesson that humans,
animals and environmental health are all crucially linked by focusing
attention on the human drivers of infectious diseases, such as urbanization
and industrialized food production. But how can infections spread in the first
place and how well do we know how to combat them?
One of the known contributors for epidemics are animals in which
researchers said that 60% of the infectious diseases that plague humans
originate from, and particularly bats. Bats are among the world's oldest
mammals, having developed over 66 million years ago and have long been
living with viruses. As a result, bats have become adapted to viruses and no
longer become sick. These flying mammals act as a living virus reservoir,
spreading infections to other animals and people. When people interact with
animals in novel ways, viruses can spread from animals to humans. A virus
may be entirely harmless to its host until it comes in touch with humans and
cause an outbreak.
Viruses, of course, are the source of all of these problems. But where did
these viruses come from and when did they appear? What is the mechanism
by which they infect humans and animals, causing so many diseases and
outbreaks?
 Unlike bacteria, viruses are not living beings. They are incapable of
reproducing on their own. Instead, they take over cells and use them to
reproduce, spread, and disseminate diseases. Viruses are mostly made up of
genetic material wrapped in a protein coat, either DNA or RNA. These DNA
and RNA sequences may change over time, collecting genetic code
modifications that help the virus survive. These genetic sequences can be used
by scientists to determine how different viruses are connected and how they
may have developed. They do not have a single origin, according to studies;
that is, they did not all originate from a single virus that altered and evolved
into all the viruses we know today. Viruses are thought to have a number of
diverse beginnings, all occurring at various times.
When scientists studied the origins of viruses, one assumption they
made is that they co-evolved with their hosts. Given that all life on Earth
began in the ocean, it's logical to assume that viruses evolved alongside their
hosts in the seas. Viruses evolved and obtained the ability to infect terrestrial
organisms as these creatures went on land.
As said, viruses cannot multiply on their own without assistance of an
unknowing host cell. When it does, it can replicate and spread rapidly. Viruses
have evolved receptors on their surfaces that match those of their ideal target
cell, allowing them to get their genetic material inside and hijack their host's
cellular machinery, allowing them to replicate by multiplying their genetic
material and proteins.
Viruses have the ability to replicate several times within their cellular
hosts and disseminate infection to other cells. If you have the flu, for example,
your body will be infected with a hundred trillion viruses in a few days, which
is more than 10,000 times the global population. They can spread through
touch, respiratory droplets, bodily fluids, contaminated food and water,
animals, and many more.
Is it true that viruses evolve quickly? Yes, some viruses have a high
mutation rate, which aids in their evolution by giving greater variation as a
starting point. Large population size and a short lifetime are two more
variables that contribute to viral evolution. The larger the population, the
more likely it is to have a virus with a specific random mutation. Viruses also
multiply swiftly, thus their populations evolve at a faster rate than their hosts'.
 With that said, let's take a look at pandemics throughout history, and
discover how viruses, humans, and medications have developed through time.
The first dated epidemic naming Plague of Athens was during the
Peloponnesian War in 430 B.C. The Peloponnesian War lasted 27 years and
resulted in the fall of Athens and the end of Greek culture's Periclean golden
period. As the war proceeded, rural Athenians flocked to Athens to escape the
approaching Spartans. The populace got crammed into cramped quarters
within the city and within the walled conduit leading to Piraeus, setting the
stage for a range of infectious diseases associated with crowded conditions. It
began a year after the war which plagued the population of Athens for five
years. According to some estimations, the death toll might be as high as
100,000 people. Richard Crawley’s book, “The History of the Peloponnesian
War," translates what the Greek historian Thucydides wrote, "People in good
health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness
and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue,
becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath”. Greece was
unable to recover and restore its preeminence in the ancient world due to a
lack of resources and a population ravaged by war and pestilence.
During 165 A.D. was when smallpox then first appeared with the Huns,
and the Antonine plague was perhaps an early manifestation of the disease.
The Huns then infected the Germans, who passed it on to the Romans, who
subsequently disseminated it throughout the Roman Empire with returning
troops. Fever, sore throat, diarrhea, and, if the patient lived long enough, pus-
filled ulcers were among the symptoms.
Infectious diseases have been a part of Roman life for a long time. Even
the wealthiest of Romans were unable to avoid the horrors of a society
without refrigeration or safe drinking water. Malaria and digestive disorders
were, unsurprisingly, widespread. However, some of the diseases that plagued
the Romans are mind-boggling, virulent fevers, wasting disorders, and worms
dwelling in putrefying wounds that couldn’t be healed.
During the medieval period, Leprosy sparked to an epidemic in Europe,
prompting the development of various leprosy-focused institutions to
accommodate a huge number of victims. By 1050, leprosy had spread
throughout England and was a common occurrence.
 The Black Death was a pandemic that swept Europe between 1347 and
1351, killing more people than any other recorded epidemic or conflict at the
period. This horrible event had a wide range of consequences. There was an
immediate halt to warfare and a significant decline in trade, albeit only for a
short time. A more long-term and tragic result of the deaths of so many
employees was a significant reduction in the area under cultivation. The
Europeans were ill-prepared for the horrors of the Black Death. The strange
swellings oozed blood and pus, prompting a plethora of other unpleasant
symptoms such as fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains,
and death.
Following the advent of the Spanish in the Carribean, there was a period
in history called The Columbian Exchange where diseases including smallpox,
measles, and bubonic plague were handed down to the native populations.
Across the north and south continents, these illnesses wiped out indigenous
peoples who had never been exposed to them before, with up to 90% of them
dying.
In 1520, during the Aztec Empire was eradicated by a smallpox outbreak.
Many people died as a result of the disease, while others were left disabled. It
weakened the inhabitants, rendering them incapable of opposing Spanish
colonizers and preventing farmers from harvesting essential crops.
The bubonic plague made another devastating appearance in 1665,
killing 20% of London's population and earning the moniker, The Great
Plague of London. Hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs died as the disease
spread along the Thames, with human death tolls rising and mass graves
emerging.
This was England's worst plague outbreak since the Black Death in 1347.
Around 15% of London's inhabitants was gone. The city’s official death toll
was 68,596 but the genuine total is believed to be far over 100,000. Other
sections of the country were affected as well. The plague was spread by fleas,
which were carried by rats. They were drawn to city streets littered with
garbage and debris, particularly in the poorest neighborhoods.
Spanish Flu, an avian-borne flu that resulted in 50 million deaths
worldwide. The 1918 influenza pandemic was first detected in Europe, then
United States, and portions of Asia before quickly spreading throughout the
world. There were no effective medications or vaccines available to treat this
deadly flu strain at the time. In the spring of 1918, wire service reports of a flu
outbreak in Madrid sparked the pandemic.
First recognized in 1981, AIDS weakens a person's immune system,
allowing illnesses that the body would normally be able to fight to kill them.
Infected people have fever, headaches, and swollen lymph nodes as a result of
the HIV infection. After symptoms fade, carriers become highly infectious
through blood and vaginal fluid, and the infection destroys t-cells.
Despite the fact that treatments to slow the disease's course have been
developed, 35 million people have died from AIDS worldwide since its
discovery, and no cure has yet been discovered.
Moving forward to 2003 where SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome) was first discovered, which is thought to have begun with bats,
spread to cats, and then to humans in China, then to 26 other countries,
infecting 8,096 individuals and killing 774.
Symptoms of SARS include respiratory difficulties, dry cough, fever, and
head and body aches, which spreads through respiratory droplets from
coughs and sneezes. Quarantine procedures were successful, and by July, the
virus had been contained, and it had not returned again. China was chastised
at the onset of the pandemic for seeking to withhold information about the
virus.
March 11, 2020, after sweeping through 114 nations in three months and
infecting over 118,000 individuals, the World Health Organization declared
COVID-19 virus to be a pandemic. And the spread wasn't even close to being
finished.
COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus, is a coronavirus strain that has
never been found in humans. Symptoms such as chest pain, fever, and cough
are prevalent, and can progress to pneumonia and death. Like SARS, it spreads
through sneeze droplets.
The first occurrence in China was recorded on November 17, 2019, in
Hubei Province, however it went unnoticed. Eight further cases were
confirmed in December, with researchers pointing to an unknown virus.
 COVID-19 vaccines, on the other hand, are already being distributed
worldwide, owing to researchers. In order to achieve herd immunity,
governments in their respective countries hope that people will be vaccinated.
It's tough to understand unwritten history, and while studying early
people's drawings, fossil remains, and surgical instruments can reveal a lot,
it's hard to reconstruct their mental attitudes toward disease and death. While
folk medicine, which is mostly based on the use of plant products or herbs,
was developed in this manner and is still practiced today. However, it is not
the end of the narrative. Deaths and diseases were not first regarded as
natural occurrences by humans. Common ailments like colds and constipation
were considered as a part of life and treated with whatever herbal treatments
were available.
Serious and disabling diseases, on the other hand, were assigned to a
different group. These were supernatural in nature. They may be the product
of an enemy casting a spell on the victim, a malevolent demon visiting the
victim, or the action of an angered deity who projected something into the
victim's body or abstracted something, usually the patient's soul. Counter
spells, incantations, potions, suctions, or other measures were used to entice
the soul back to its proper habitat within the body, or to extract the bad
intruder.
Prehistoric or early human society's medicine was heavily influenced by
magic and religion. Incantations, dancing, grimaces, and all the tricks of the
magician were used to accompany the oral administration of a vegetable
medication or treatment.
Scientific medicine reached its pinnacle in the 19 th century. However,
depicting the history of medicine became more challenging. Discoveries
abound, and the number of illustrious doctors is so large that history quickly
became a series of biographies.
Because of new technologies like microscopy and injections, the structure
of the human body was virtually completely known, even the tiny structure of
the body was comprehended. Understanding physiological mechanisms,
which were quickly being revealed, was just as crucial as anatomical
information.
 The unequivocal demonstration that certain diseases, such as the infection
of surgical wounds, were directly caused by minute living creatures was
perhaps the most remarkable medical advance of the 19th century. This
finding transformed the face of pathology forever and ushered in a new era in
surgical practice and vaccinology.
Vaccines have been beneficial to humans for over two centuries. However,
the road to effective vaccines hasn't been easy or straightforward. Vaccination
can significantly reduce the danger of becoming seriously ill as a result of a
virus, as well as the risk of spreading the infection to others. But no matter
how powerful their immunological capability, vaccines will not be able to
entirely stop or alleviate our battle with pathogens. Vaccine shortages would
undoubtedly persist without proper financing and flexible funding
mechanisms, putting lives at risk all around the world. Even though they have
substantially improved over time, the fact that vaccinations are biological
agents makes them far more difficult to manufacture than pharmaceuticals.
With that said, can we prevent an outbreak from happening? Practically,
we cannot. Considering our current situation, Philippines is already in debt.
It’s also difficult to be more cautious, given that we can’t just stay at home and
do nothing. Everyone needs money for their daily necessities. It’s hardly
improbable that a new outbreak may occur. We have no choice but to treat
and solve this situation. If everyone’s following health protocols, the
probability of having another outbreak will reduce. Everything boils down to
the people and the government should also be able to move more quickly and,
of course, think more wisely. Enough with political wars for now, we Filipinos
should move as one.
Lastly, it's only natural for us to send a message of optimism and
happiness during these trying times. It doesn't hurt to be kind to people we
encounter, whether in person or online, because we never know what they're
going through.
As we battle side by side against COVID-19, let us remain well-informed
and secure. We will unite and set aside our differences to overcome this crisis.