History is riddled with epidemics and plagues, yet a select handful earn the distinction of being the top 10 worst for their sheer brutality and lasting influence on humanity. Below is a countdown of the most catastrophic outbreaks ever recorded.

Why These Are the Top 10 Worst Plagues

10. Moscow Plague and Riot

The first whispers of plague in Moscow surfaced in late 1770, exploding into a full‑blown epidemic by spring 1771. Authorities responded with draconian measures: forced quarantines, demolition of contaminated property without compensation, and the shutdown of public baths. These actions sowed terror and fury among citizens. The city’s economy ground to a halt as factories, markets, stores, and government offices were sealed shut. Food shortages quickly followed, plunging most Muscovites into dire living conditions. The aristocracy and wealthier residents fled the city, abandoning the afflicted.

On the morning of September 17, 1771, roughly a thousand people gathered at the Spasskiye gates, demanding the release of detained rebels and the lifting of quarantines. The army dispersed the crowd, and the unrest was finally quelled after a series of trials that sent about 300 participants to court. A government commission led by Grigory Orlov arrived on September 26 to restore order, implementing measures to combat the disease while providing work and food for the populace, eventually pacifying the city.

SEE ALSO: 10 Of Human History’s Most Atrocious Plagues

9. Great Plague of Marseille

The Great Plague of Marseille stands as one of the most significant European bubonic outbreaks of the early 18th century. Arriving in 1720, it claimed roughly 100,000 lives in Marseille and surrounding provinces. Despite the staggering death toll, the city’s economy rebounded swiftly; trade routes to the West Indies and Latin America expanded, and by 1765 the population had recovered to pre‑plague levels. This epidemic was distinct from the medieval Black Death, which devastated Europe between 1347 and 1353.

Authorities attempted to halt the spread by enacting an Act of Parliament of Aix that imposed the death penalty on anyone communicating between Marseille and the rest of Provence. To enforce isolation, a plague wall—known as the Mur de la Peste—was erected across the countryside, physically separating the infected area from healthy regions.

8. Antonine Plague

The Antonine Plague, also called the Plague of Galen, struck the Roman Empire between 165 and 180 AD. Modern scholars debate whether the disease was smallpox or measles, but it arrived via troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. The epidemic claimed two emperors: Lucius Verus in 169 and his co‑regent Marcus Aurelius, whose family name gave the plague its moniker.

Nine years after the initial outbreak, the disease resurfaced, reportedly causing up to 2,000 deaths per day in Rome—about a quarter of those infected. Overall mortality estimates hover around five million, with some regions losing up to one‑third of their population. The Roman army suffered heavily, and the epidemic reshaped art and literature throughout the empire.

7. Plague of Athens

The Plague of Athens devastated the Greek city‑state during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC). Likely entering through Piraeus, the city’s sole port and food supply hub, the disease also reached Sparta and much of the eastern Mediterranean. The plague re‑emerged twice more—in 429 BC and the winter of 427/6 BC.

Historians still debate whether the epidemic was a critical factor in Athens’ eventual defeat, but it unquestionably weakened the city’s war effort and may have paved the way for Macedonian and later Roman dominance. While traditionally identified as a form of bubonic plague, modern scholars propose alternatives such as typhus, smallpox, measles, or even toxic shock syndrome based on symptom descriptions.

6. Great Plague of Milan

The Italian Plague of 1629‑1631 unfolded as a series of bubonic outbreaks across northern Italy, commonly referred to as the Great Plague of Milan. Approximately 280,000 people perished, with Lombardy and Venice bearing the brunt of the death toll. German and French troops introduced the disease to Mantua in 1629, a spillover from the Thirty Years’ War, while Venetian forces fleeing battle spread it further into central Italy.

Milan alone lost about 60,000 residents out of a population of 130,000, marking it as one of the final major bouts of the centuries‑long pandemic that began with the Black Death. The epidemic dramatically reshaped demographic and economic patterns in the region.

SEE ALSO: 10 Twisted Facts About The Dancing Plagues

5. American Plagues

Before Europeans set foot across the Atlantic, the Americas existed in relative isolation from Eurasian‑African disease reservoirs. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century introduced catastrophic pandemics of measles, smallpox, and other Old‑World illnesses. These diseases spread rapidly among indigenous peoples—often preceding direct contact with colonizers—decimating populations and collapsing sophisticated societies.

Smallpox and related ailments ravaged the Aztec and Inca empires, killing countless individuals, including military and civic leaders, thereby facilitating European conquest. Conversely, syphilis traveled from the New World back to Europe, wreaking havoc across the Atlantic. The demographic collapse reshaped the continent’s cultural and political landscape forever.

4. Great Plague of London

The Great Plague of London (1665‑1666) unleashed a massive wave of disease that claimed between 75,000 and 100,000 lives—about one‑fifth of the city’s population. Historically identified as bubonic plague caused by Yersinia pestis and transmitted by fleas, the outbreak was far smaller than the medieval Black Death but remains one of England’s most infamous epidemics.

While the disease’s exact nature is still debated—some scholars suggest a viral hemorrhagic fever—the epidemic’s impact was profound. Mortality records, such as the famous “Bill of Mortality,” document the staggering death toll, and the city’s social fabric was irrevocably altered.

3. Plague of Justinian

The Plague of Justinian ravaged the Byzantine Empire, striking its capital Constantinople in 541‑542 AD. Most scholars agree the culprit was bubonic plague, the same bacterium that later fueled the Black Death. The pandemic’s reach spanned Central and South Asia, North Africa, Arabia, and extended as far north as Denmark and westward to Ireland.

Emperor Justinian I, after whom the disease is named, contracted the illness himself. At its peak, the plague may have killed up to 5,000 people per day in Constantinople, wiping out roughly 40 % of the city’s inhabitants. Over the following century, recurring waves decimated up to a quarter of the Eastern Mediterranean’s population, reshaping the course of European history.

2. The Third Pandemic

The “Third Pandemic” began in China’s Yunnan province in 1855 and spread to every inhabited continent, ultimately claiming more than 12 million lives in India and China alone. The World Health Organization considered the pandemic active until 1959, when annual deaths fell to about 200.

Bubonic plague persisted in rodent reservoirs across Central Asia, but massive population movements driven by political conflict and expanding global trade carried the disease worldwide. Modern research suggests that the ancient Black Death may still lie dormant in some regions, underscoring the enduring threat of plague bacteria.

1. The Black Death

The Black Death (1347‑1351) stands as one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history. Traditionally attributed to the bacterium Yersinia pestis, some recent theories propose alternative culprits. Scholars dispute its origins—some argue it emerged in China or Central Asia in the late 1320s, while others contend it was endemic to southern Russia.

Regardless of its birthplace, the disease traveled along trade routes, reaching Crimea in 1346 and then sweeping across Western Europe and North Africa throughout the 1340s. Estimates suggest a global death toll of 75 million, with Europe alone losing 25‑50 million lives. The plague re‑emerged in successive generations, persisting into the 1700s and prompting over 100 epidemic waves across Europe.

(This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains quotations from Wikipedia.)

SEE ALSO: 8 Fascinating Facts About Plague Doctors

When it comes to 10 fictional plagues, nothing beats the sheer imagination of storytellers who turn disease into drama. No one likes getting sick. Debilitating illnesses drain your energy and cause all kinds of nasty fluids to come out of your body. If allowed to spread, these diseases can decimate an entire population. As bad as that sounds, fiction is arguably worse.

Why 10 Fictional Plagues Capture Our Imagination

10 Red Flu

The Last Ship (2014–2018) may seem like just a naval action show, but it really revolves around a worldwide pandemic. Dubbed the “Red Flu” by some parties, this disease stems from an ancient plant virus buried in the Arctic. Touch helps transmit it, but you can also get sick from breathing contaminated air. Once infected, you suffer from intense fevers and exhaustion. You then develop grotesque lesions all over your body before your system shuts down. The sickness works quickly and efficiently.

That efficacy lets the virus wipe out most of the globe. It easily erodes entire governments, leaving the world in chaos. As bad as that is, you might be more disgusted at what it does to the survivors. Several cultlike leaders use the crisis to frame themselves as saviors and seize power. As much as it bonds the navy sailors, strife of this scale also brings out the worst of humanity.

9 Vampirism

It’s no secret that vampires can bite humans to turn them into other vampires. It only takes reading books like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire or watching TV shows like True Blood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer to understand this. However, The Strain (2014–2017) boils that process down to medical science. Rather than fangs, a tendril shoots out of the monster’s mouth and latches onto its victim. It uses this tool to suck blood, but it serves another purpose as well.

Feeding on humans injects wormlike organisms into their systems. These little parasites gradually alter their organs, transforming their targets into hairless husks. Their only purpose is to serve their higher vampire masters. Starting in New York City, this biological warfare is enough to cripple the metropolis, along with the rest of the country. Suffice it to say, these vampires are a far cry from the sexy, sparkling kind.

8 1

It doesn’t take a doctor to know that a film called Contagion (2011) concerns a plague. The title refers to a virus called MEV-1. This illness begins in fruit bats and pigs before jumping to humans. From there, infection from fellows is easy. The disease transfers through close contact. That doesn’t just refer to skin but also sweat, saliva, and breath. The ensuing pandemic is fraught with fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, seizures, and whatever other crippling symptoms you can imagine. After a few agonizing days, the afflicted die. Worse still, the virus maintains that speed on a global scale.

The sickness severely hinders the population. Legions of people are dead before they know it, and the remainder line crowded hospitals, pandemic shelters, and dirty streets. Although MEV-1 isn’t quite enough to topple governments or bring forth an apocalypse, it does breed desperation from both professionals and civilians. No one knows how to isolate the infection or synthesize a cure. Even when the doctors engineer a vaccine, they must figure out a means of distribution. Those hurdles ground the movie in uncomfortable realism, which only makes it more unnerving.

7 Cordyceps

While The Strain grounds vampires in medical science, The Last of Us (2023– ) attempts the same for zombies. This post-apocalyptic franchise sees the Cordyceps plant fungus mutate beyond anything on record. It soon evolves enough to infect humans. Starting at their brains, it slowly morphs them into feral beasts—covered in fungal growths and focused only on killing. It goes without saying that bites can transmit the disease, but dead specimens release spores, which are arguably more effective if you breathe them. In short, the human race has no chance.

It’s not surprising that this new form of Cordyceps kills most of the planet’s population. Humanity has no idea how to combat it with science, so the only option is to fight it conventionally. This desperation turns friends and family against each other. Characters must execute their closest allies or risk getting infected themselves. Such ruthless tactics are undoubtedly isolating, but they’re the only way to survive.

6 Catriona Plague

World-hopping sounds fun, but it presents a grave danger to everyone around. If travelers aren’t careful, they can introduce foreign objects into an environment, throwing off the whole ecosystem. That’s the mistake that Ciri makes in The Witcher series (2019 – ). As she jumps between worlds, she lands in a port afflicted by bubonic plague, specifically the Black Death. The residents suffer from fevers, aches, swelling, and lack of energy. A bug from this forsaken place hitches a ride on the heroine’s clothes as she teleports back, thereby heralding disaster for her own world.

The bug then jumps to a rat on a ship bound for Ciri’s homeland, and the rest is history. The sickness spreads across the Continent with little difficulty. The denizens of this medieval fantasy realm don’t have the knowledge or tools needed to combat it. Although the illness is technically nonfictional, who knows how it could mutate in the face of Elves, Dwarves, and magic? That unpredictable lethality soon fills hospitals to the brim with the dead and dying. In the end, the losses resulting from this “Catriona Plague” rival those of the war shortly before.

5 Heart Virus

This sickness differs from other entries in that it only affects one person. That may sound like a walk in the park, but try telling that to the patient. Goku, the overarching hero of Dragon Ball, contracts this mysterious heart virus shortly after returning from his space travels. It gives him the usual fever and exhaustion, but it also puts him in agonizing pain. Not only is he unable to fight, but he can’t even get out of bed. That’s after taking the cure.

The virus on its own is enough to kill him entirely. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens in an apocalyptic future. For perspective, Goku is among the mightiest warriors in the universe. He withstands the most terrible attacks you can imagine, yet this virus puts him down for the count. Normal folks wouldn’t stand a chance against such an illness.

4 112)

The best intentions can easily go wrong. The Simian Flu originates as a cure. Namely, Dr. Rodman engineers it to combat Alzheimer’s, testing it on chimps to stimulate brain activity. When a test subject unexpectedly gives birth, her offspring shows immense intelligence. Unfortunately, this young chimp—dubbed “Caesar”—is soon on the receiving end of human cruelty. He retaliates by releasing an airborne version of the serum, granting similar sharpness to his fellow apes. What no one foresees is its effect on people.

The serum knocks the humans off the top of the food chain, paving the way for the modern Planet of the Apes series. The initial strain causes victims to cough up blood and eventually die. That alone eliminates most of Earth’s residents and power structures. The survivors appear to have natural immunity, but the serum is only gestating. The remaining humans eventually lose all higher brain functions, starting with their ability to speak. That downward spiral frees the apes to cage them like beasts. Oh, how the tables have turned.

3 Greyscale

This dermatological disease is hard to contract and harder to get rid of. Introduced in A Song of Ice and Fire, Greyscale can only transfer through direct contact. That’s a simple prospect in itself. When a swarm of infected individuals attacks you, though, it becomes difficult to dodge. Thankfully, you can easily avoid these mobs by staying out of the areas that they frequent. Such caution is in your best interest.

Greyscale equates to slow and steady suffering. It’s generally nonfatal, but it causes children to become malformed as they grow. For adults, the sickly scales spread across the body, gradually driving the patient insane. Victims have one hope for salvation, but it only brings further pain. Treatment involves carving and peeling the scales off. This process is downright excruciating. It essentially amounts to skinning a person alive. Given that degree of torture, Greyscale is more hazardous than the titular Game of Thrones.

2 Geostigma

As foreign organisms, aliens run a clear risk of infecting humans. Few invaders are more malevolent than Jenova. This extraterrestrial woman touches down prior to Final Fantasy VII. After being an unwilling test subject, her dissected corpse falls into the Lifestream: the mystical liquid infused into the planet and its people. That unholy mixture has gruesome consequences down the line.

Advent Children (2005), FFVII’s film sequel, introduces Geostigma. This sickness arises from the infected Lifestream, which spreads to the planet’s innumerable residents. Alien matter infiltrates their bodies, causing their systems to fight back with antibodies. The catch is that the bodies overcompensate and collapse. Victims then develop sores and excrete black goo before finally dying. Although anyone can contract Geostigma, it ravages the world’s children first due to their weaker constitutions. Of course, another illness inflicts much more damage in that respect.

1 Infertility Epidemic

Sometimes, the simplest problems are the most difficult to solve. Children of Men (2006) provides ample evidence of that sentiment. The Infertility Epidemic does exactly what the name suggests. It renders humans unable to produce children. While the story never states the exact cause of this disease, it actively explores the ramifications. Needless to say, they are terrifying.

Society completely collapses thanks to this single issue. Extremists incite their followers to violent tactics, and governments enact totalitarian regimes to maintain control. Meanwhile, everyday people sink into hopelessness. Human beings, like any animal, have an instinct to procreate. Taking that away not only robs them of purpose, but it also prevents the species from continuing. The inevitable endpoint is extinction. That fact makes this sickness deadlier than any other.

When you hear the phrase 10 twisted facts, you might picture bizarre trivia, but the dancing plagues of medieval Europe were anything but ordinary. From inexplicable mass convulsions to grim cures, this eerie saga spans centuries and continents, leaving historians both baffled and fascinated.

10 Twisted Facts Overview

10 The Case Of Frau Troffea

A week before the Mary Magdalene feast in 1518, Frau Troffea stepped out of her doorway and began an unstoppable dance. Her limbs flailed in every direction, and she kept moving from dawn until dusk, only to collapse from sheer exhaustion.

Her muscles quivered, sweat drenched her skin, and after a brief, trembling sleep she awoke to resume the frantic jig. By the third day, her shoes were slick with blood, yet she could not find rest; the compulsion drove her onward.

Spectators watched in horrified fascination as days passed. Eventually, Frau Troffea was escorted to a shrine for a hoped‑for cure, but it arrived too late. The frenzy spread, swelling from a few dozen dancers to over four hundred, whose feet bled and bodies bruised until many perished.

9 Cause Unknown

As August rolled on, ever more citizens flooded the streets, their legs jerking in a macabre, relentless rhythm. Fear gripped the city; onlookers argued whether divine wrath or demonic influence was to blame. By the time hundreds were dancing—bloodied, sweaty, and utterly spent—reports suggested up to fifteen deaths per day.

The root cause remains a mystery. Was it a case of collective hysteria, a contagious pathogen, or something else entirely? Scholars still debate, and no definitive answer has emerged for the Strasbourg outbreak or its European counterparts.

8 Paracelsus’s Opinion

Paracelsus, the famed physician‑alchemist, visited Strasbourg in 1526, a few years after the infamous dancing epidemic. He was the first to chronicle Frau Troffea’s ordeal and coined the term “choreomania” to label the phenomenon.

According to Paracelsus, the epidemic began when Frau Troffea’s husband, irritated by her relentless twirls, sparked a domestic dispute that ignited the mass hysteria. He argued that personal grievances could cascade into communal madness.

Paracelsus dissected the ailment into three origins: a product of imagination, a release of sexual frustration, and physiological triggers in certain individuals. Ultimately, he blamed disgruntled wives as the primary catalyst for the dancing plague.

7 Societal Stress

One plausible explanation points to overwhelming societal stress. The dancing plague erupted shortly after the Black Death, and sufferers displayed involuntary leg spasms—symptoms reminiscent of modern psychiatric conditions.

Religious guilt, class tensions, poverty, and famine likely converged, creating a pressure cooker of anxiety. Many believed they were being punished by a higher power, while the stark divide between rich and poor amplified collective despair, pushing vulnerable populations to the brink.

6 Tarantula Bites

France wasn’t alone in experiencing the mania; Italy reported similar outbreaks, labeling them “tarantism.” Locals blamed the sudden, uncontrollable dancing on the bite of a tarantula spider, claiming victims felt compelled to sway and eventually plunge into the sea, sometimes to their death.

Although tarantula venom isn’t lethal to humans, the phenomenon persisted into the 20th century, with the final documented case investigated in 1959, underscoring the enduring mystique of this peculiar affliction.

5 The Binding Cure

Various remedies were attempted to halt the relentless dancing. One common approach involved binding sufferers tightly in cloth, akin to swaddling infants, thereby restricting their ability to move and preventing self‑inflicted injuries.

Some victims reported that firm pressure around the abdomen provided relief, while others begged for a hard blow or stomp to the stomach, believing that such shock could quell their compulsions.

4 Darkness And Fasting

Paracelsus also advocated a stark regimen: lock the afflicted in a pitch‑black chamber and subject them to severe fasting, limiting sustenance to bread and water. He disparaged the sufferers as “whores and scoundrels,” insisting on harsh treatment.

Historical records do not clarify whether this brutal method succeeded, but it was no kinder than the exorcisms performed by clergy on those believed to be possessed by the dance mania.

3 Children’s Dancing Plague

Chronicles from 1237 recount a chilling episode in Erfurt, Germany, where roughly a hundred children erupted into uncontrollable dancing. They marched all the way to Arnstadt before collapsing from sheer exhaustion.

Authorities gathered the exhausted youngsters and returned them to their families. Several children died shortly after, while the survivors were said to carry a lingering tremor for the rest of their lives.

The cause of this youthful outbreak remains unknown, adding another layer of mystery to the broader phenomenon.

2 Saint John’s Dance

In the 1300s, shortly after the Black Death, a wave of dance mania swept through Germany. Men and women seized the streets, convulsively leaping, foaming at the mouth, and appearing possessed.

The frenzy spread person to person; some victims were swaddled and seemed to recover briefly, only to relapse into the uncontrollable dancing once more.

Those caught in the fits reported an eerie detachment: they heard nothing, saw nothing, yet felt compelled to scream, twirl, and exhaust themselves until they finally collapsed.

1 Saint Vitus’s Dance

Often lumped together with the dance manias, Saint Vitus’s Dance was actually a neurological disorder causing involuntary jerking, now known as Sydenham’s chorea. Affected individuals were ushered to the Chapel of St. Vitus in hopes of divine remedy.

The Catholic Church mandated pilgrimage to the chapel; refusal meant excommunication, underscoring the severe social pressure surrounding the condition.

Elizabeth, a devoted researcher of arcane histories since 1997, spends her days amid dusty tomes, chronicling these strange episodes and traveling to historic sites to uncover further clues.

When we talk about 10 human history’s most harrowing pandemics, we’re diving into an epic tug‑of‑war between evolving pathogens and ever‑more clever humans. Every breakthrough in disease control sparks a fresh mutation, and the story of survival reads like a thriller where the villains keep changing their masks. Below, we rank the ten deadliest outbreaks that reshaped civilizations, each with its own gruesome tale.

10 Human History’s Deadliest Outbreaks

10 Prehistoric Plague

Scientists reckon a massive plague struck roughly 100,000 years ago, deep in the Paleolithic era, slashing the fledgling human population in Africa to fewer than ten thousand souls. The disease seemed to target the very young, decimating the tribe’s future generations. Genetic sleuthing uncovered two ape‑derived genes that shield modern apes from severe infections; humans lost one and rendered the other ineffective, hinting at a catastrophic loss of immunity.

After this cataclysm, Homo sapiens bounced back, spreading across continents. The loss of those protective genes may have forced early humans to adapt new defenses, ultimately shaping our species’ resilience.

9 Sweden

Recent excavations of mass graves in Swedish caves have revealed a chilling find: the oldest known strain of the true Black Plague, the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Dating back 5,000‑6,000 years, these remains suggest the pathogen was haunting humanity long before the famous historic waves. The discovery aligns with a mysterious dip in ancient population numbers, offering a plausible culprit for that prehistoric decline.

Unlike its later, more lethal incarnations that devastated the Roman Empire and later Europe, this ancient strain appears far less deadly today—a testament to human adaptation. The Swedish find reminds us that ancient pathogens can linger unseen, waiting for the right conditions to re‑emerge.

8 Athens

Between 430 and 427 BC, Athens was ravaged by a mysterious illness that crippled its war effort during the Peloponnesian conflict. Known simply as the Plague of Athens, contemporary accounts—especially Thucydides’ own chronicle—describe a nightmare of violent coughing, vomiting, and convulsions that claimed over a third of the city’s inhabitants.

Modern scholars still debate the exact pathogen; theories range from measles to smallpox or even an unknown viral agent. Regardless of its identity, the epidemic shattered Athenian society and is widely believed to have accelerated the decline of Classical Greece.

7 The Antonine Plague

Starting in AD 165, the Roman Empire faced a ferocious outbreak—most scholars label it a smallpox epidemic—that roiled the empire like a dark cloud. At its peak, the disease claimed up to 2,000 lives per day, wiping out roughly 7‑10 % of the Roman populace.

The tightly packed legions suffered especially, weakening military might and hastening the empire’s gradual contraction. The Antonine Plague sowed social fragmentation, echoing later European plagues that would further erode communal bonds and open the door for Germanic tribes to gain a foothold.

6 The Byzantine Empire

The first recorded bubonic plague, often called the Plague of Justinian, struck the Eastern Roman—or Byzantine—Empire in 541 CE. The disease, carried by fleas on rats, devastated Constantinople before rippling outward across the empire’s territories.

Emperor Justinian’s ambitious campaigns to reclaim Western lands were abruptly halted as the pestilence swept through, killing at least 25 million people. The pandemic underscored how expanding trade routes could become deadly highways for disease, a pattern that would repeat throughout history.

5 Medieval Europe

The Black Death, or Great Plague, erupted in Europe after originating in China around 1334. By 1348, the bubonic nightmare had arrived via trade routes, claiming up to 60 % of the continent’s population.

Beyond the staggering death toll, the pandemic reshaped European culture: religious fervor waned, scientific curiosity rose, and a wave of artistic innovation followed the tragedy, laying groundwork for the Renaissance.

4 America

When European colonists arrived in the New World, they unwittingly introduced smallpox to indigenous peoples. The first outbreaks hit Florida, the Carolinas, and Virginia in 1519, later reaching Massachusetts by 1633. Native populations, lacking prior exposure, suffered catastrophic mortality.

Smallpox ravaged the Aztec Empire, slashing its numbers from 17 million to a mere 1.3 million within a century—about a 90 % decline. By 1900, only roughly 530,000 Native Americans remained, marking one of the most devastating demographic collapses in recorded history.

3 The Modern Plague

Often overlooked, the Modern Plague began around 1860 in China and struck Hong Kong in 1894. Over the next two decades, the outbreak claimed roughly ten million lives, extending its reach into India as well.

Crucially, scientists identified the flea‑borne bacterium behind the disease, enabling effective treatment and prevention measures—a turning point that transformed plague management forever.

2 Polio

Poliomyelitis, caused by the poliovirus, aggressively attacks the nervous system, often leading to paralysis. The United States saw the disease’s worst year in 1952, with 59,000 paralytic cases—an eleven‑fold increase from 1933’s 5,000 cases.

The crisis spurred the development of two effective vaccines, ultimately curbing the epidemic and protecting future generations from the crippling effects of polio.

1 HIV

The HIV/AIDS pandemic burst onto the global stage in the early 1980s, with the CDC reporting the first recognized case in 1981. The virus hit the gay community particularly hard, and by 1985, more diagnoses were recorded than in all previous years combined.

Humanity responded with antiretroviral therapies that transformed HIV from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition. Advances now allow HIV‑positive parents to have HIV‑negative children and enable serodiscordant couples to avoid transmission. Ongoing research aims for a cure and vaccine, offering hope that even this modern scourge may someday be contained.

When medical science was still in its infancy and there was no proven cure for most infectious scourges, the best advice physicians could offer was the Latin maxim Cito, longe, tarde – “Leave quickly, go far away, and return slowly.” This ancient counsel captures the desperate reality of the top 10 historic measures people resorted to when faced with a raging epidemic.

Top 10 Historic Ways Explained

From stinky concoctions to elaborate border controls, our ancestors tried everything they could imagine to keep the dreaded pestilence at bay. Below we rank the most out‑of‑the‑ordinary strategies, preserving the quirky details and vivid anecdotes that made each method memorable.

10 Smells

Miasma theory, the belief that foul air and offensive odors caused disease, put a huge amount of faith in the power of scent to ward off illness. Authorities even fined Londoners in 1357 if they left any rank animal products or dung in the streets, hoping that cleaner air would stop the spread.

For those unable to keep their surroundings odor‑free, the alternative was to mask the smell with perfume and sweet fragrances. Yet the most infamous aromatic remedy came from a group of four thieves who concocted a potent vinegar mixture of herbs, spices, and garlic. They called it Four Thieves Vinegar, believing its strong smell would protect them while they looted plague‑stricken homes. When caught, the thieves surrendered the recipe to avoid hanging.

9 Masks

Some plague‑fighters turned to olfactory defenses for more noble reasons. Medieval physicians who tended the sick often wore distinctive beaked masks, which to modern eyes look like bizarre bird‑hats. In reality, these were the Hazmat suits of the Middle Ages.

The doctors also donned waxed aprons to keep blood and other fluids from soaking through their garments, and leather gloves to avoid direct contact with patients. Crystal lenses in the masks allowed clear vision while shielding the eyes from droplets. Most importantly, the beak was packed with pungent herbs and spices, under the belief that the terrible smells of the infected caused the disease. Some physicians even chewed garlic while examining victims, hoping its odor would purify the air they inhaled.

8 Fires

When personal protection proved insufficient, city officials tried to cleanse entire urban atmospheres by lighting massive bonfires. The heat and smoke were thought to purify the air and drive disease‑causing miasmas away.

During the Great Plague of 1665, London’s Lord Mayor ordered every resident to amass enough combustible material to keep a fire burning nonstop for three full days and nights. Citizens obeyed, and the streets were left empty save for those tending the flames and ensuring sparks didn’t ignite nearby homes. The diarist Samuel Pepys recorded the city awash in firelight, yet the effort failed to stop thousands from dying.

Oddly, smoking was once considered beneficial to health, as the tiny “bonfire” of tobacco in a pipe was thought to cleanse the lungs.

7 Kill Cats

Amid the Great Plague, London’s authorities also decreed a culling of cats and dogs, mistakenly believing that eliminating these animals would curb the disease. In reality, the plague was spread by rats and their fleas, so removing feline predators may have unintentionally prolonged the outbreak by allowing rat numbers to swell.

Cats have historically suffered during crises. In 18th‑century France, crowds would capture cats in nets or cages and hoist them over fires, believing their ashes offered protection against witchcraft and brought good luck.

Nonetheless, cats could indeed carry fleas that harboured the plague bacterium, so the extermination effort had a grain of logic, albeit a misguided one.

6 Bloodletting

Bleeding patients was a favorite pastime of physicians for centuries. The ancient doctor Galen championed bloodletting so fiercely that his colleagues mocked him, recalling a tale where he tried to bleed a fever out of a patient and the floor was awash with blood, prompting the quip, “You really slaughtered that fever.”

Later physicians refined the practice by attaching leeches to the body, allowing the sanguine parasites to draw blood in a relatively painless manner. Women known as leech finders would wade into shallow waters, letting the creatures latch onto their bare legs, then selling the engorged leeches at a premium.

Modern medicine now advises against bloodletting for most ailments, though leeches have made a scientific comeback in microsurgery to improve circulation in reattached limbs.

5 Quarantine

Ships were notorious breeding grounds for disease in the Middle Ages, with cramped decks fostering rapid transmission. Recognizing this, the Republic of Venice instituted a groundbreaking protocol in 1448: any vessel arriving in port had to remain anchored for forty days before its crew and cargo could disembark.

This forty‑day waiting period gave rise to the term “quarantine.” The number itself resonated with the biblical motif of a 40‑day period of purification, such as Jesus’ fast in the desert. Modern epidemiology notes that the average interval from bubonic plague infection to death is about 37 days, making Venice’s precaution remarkably prescient.

4 Cordon Sanitaire

Sometimes entire empires erected barriers to keep the pestilence out. In 1770, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria established a cordon sanitaire along her frontier with the Ottoman Empire, a defensive line that remained intact for 101 years without a single plague outbreak in Austrian lands.

The 1,600‑kilometre (1,000‑mile) border was manned by soldiers stationed within musket range of one another. Travelers and goods could only cross at designated checkpoints, where they were held for health inspections. In peaceful times, individuals were monitored for 21 days; during active Ottoman outbreaks, the observation period extended to 48 days.

To ensure fabrics and wool weren’t contaminated, authorities placed them in warehouses where peasants were paid to sleep atop the bundles. If the sleepers emerged unharmed, the goods were deemed safe.

3 Whipping Yourself

In antiquity, plagues were sometimes blamed on Apollo’s invisible arrows. By the Middle Ages, however, many Christians believed the disease was divine punishment for sin. This conviction gave rise to the flagellant movement, where groups of believers publicly scourged themselves to atone for collective guilt.

In 1349, flagellants marched into London, naked and bleeding, each carrying a three‑tailed scourge with knots and occasionally sharp nails. They beat their own flesh in a theatrical display of penance, hoping the self‑inflicted pain would appease an angry God.

The same year, Pope Clement VI issued a papal bull condemning the flagellants, arguing that only the Church held the authority to forgive sins. Moreover, the large gatherings of bloodied bodies only served to accelerate disease transmission.

2 Mercury, Unicorns, And Goat Stones

The placebo effect is a potent force: when patients believe a remedy works, they often feel better, even if the treatment contains no active ingredient. In the past, physicians capitalized on this by prescribing exotic, costly substances that dazzled the wealthy.

Mercury, the only liquid metal at room temperature, fascinated doctors for its quicksilver properties. Some apothecaries also sold “unicorn horn” powder—likely the long, spiral tusk of the narwhal—promising miraculous cures.

Yet one particularly pragmatic doctor dismissed these extravagant cures in favor of a humble bezoar, a stone formed in the stomachs of goats and other ruminants. He proclaimed that this modest object could counteract the plague, offering a far more affordable alternative.

1 Live Chickens

In the 17th century, alongside snake‑based lozenges, some physicians turned to live poultry as a bizarre cure. The Black Death produced painful, swollen lymph nodes called buboes, and an Austrian doctor in 1494 suggested an unorthodox remedy involving roosters.

He instructed practitioners to pluck the feathers surrounding a rooster’s rear, then press the bird’s rump directly onto a bubo until the rooster died. If the first bird perished, another would be tried until one survived the ordeal.

The exact method of restraining the rooster remains unclear, but the practice persisted for centuries, likely evolving from an older Arabic technique where a chicken’s heart‑adjacent wound was placed over a venomous bite to draw out poison.