History of Medicine

As we come to accept that the great covid-19 pandemic which started off as an epidemic is slowly becoming  endemic , it's worth noting the new additions to our vocabulary. These words that were likely "all Greek to you" before 2020, are indeed just that -- they are all in fact derived from ancient Greek! The word  epidemic was in use since at least the time of Homer which is around 600 BCE, and is mentioned in the Odyssey to mean "who is back home" or "who is in his country." However, it was first introduced to medical jargon, along with its closely associated words pandemic and endemic , by the ancient Greek doctor, Hippocrates.    Hippocrates' treatise on Epidemics  Evolution of the term Epidemics. Credit: Paul Martin And not just these but several other words that we have come to associate with the current pandemic (as well as other diseases) were also coined by Hippocrates and his medical school such as: Cytokine Chronic Resolution Peak Acute

Pandemic probably tops the long list of new words added to our vocabulary in 2020, but before it earned that notoriety, covid-19 was classified as an epidemic in Wuhan, China. It was only in March 2020 that WHO upgraded it to a pandemic -- far deadlier and more widespread than an epidemic. What's in a name, you ask? Merriam Webster defines an epidemic as a disease affecting a large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time;  a pandemic is an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people, according to the WHO. Not surprisingly, both words are derived from ancient Greek. Pandemic comes from the Greek word pandemos , based on pan meaning "all" + demos meaning "people" or "population"; pandemic therefore affects nearly all of the people. In contrast, epi means "upon," so epidemic is something visited upon the people. 

As we ponder the consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is interesting to look back at history, which is riddled with pandemics with staggering death tolls. I thought it would be worthwhile to compare the effects of historical pandemics with the current one for some perspective. While the effects of the current pandemic are certainly shocking, it was shocking to discover that other pandemics were even more devastating with some like the plague claiming tens of millions of lives. The infographic below offers a great visual representation of the death toll of past pandemics and helps provide a good perspective on how each pandemic compares with others and also to the pandemic we face today. Death Toll of Various Pandemics. Image: Visual Capitalist   The tragic loss of human life is an obvious consequence of a pandemic, but there are also other fallouts that are less well known but equally important in the context of history. Looking at pandemics of the ancient worl