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The ecological processes that determine disease outbreaks to reach pandemic proportions are the size and distribution of population and movements of the infected and vulnerable hosts and disease-carrying viruses. The fact that five of the major 20 pandemics have occurred within the past 20 years speaks for itself about the effects of population explosion, rapid urbanization and increased life expectancy. The more aged a person becomes, the more weak he gets and may possibly contract one or the other debilitating disease. Vulnerability increases. As for movement of population, intercontinental travel and trade have made spread of any contagion faster and further. A live example is the ongoing pandemic which spread across the globe in a record seven months.
Pandemics have ravaged humanity all through history, causing innumerable loss of human lives and livestock, so much so that they have changed history at times. The successful colonization of the Americas by Europeans was possible because of the microbes. It is said that native Indians who resisted colonial invasion died more of imported infections from the Old World (Europe) than sword and bullet wounds. On the contrary, the Europeans could not conquer the tropical African continent as the natives there had already got infected and developed immunity against certain diseases.
Napoleon Bonaparte's relentless Victory March was halted by the 'flu' pandemic. The French had to abandon construction of the Suez Canal, when hundreds of thousands of forced labourers died of cholera.
Not all is dark about a pandemic: there are silver linings too. For instance, public health measures such as sanitation and safe drinking water were offshoots of the great cholera pandemic of London. The causative bacteria of cholera and tuberculosis were discovered during the heights of pandemics.
Vaccines of various platforms were introduced during pandemics and the COVID-19 shots which evolved in a record 11 months stand testimony to it. Emerging and re-emerging infections will keep spreading among people. History can repeat itself but lessons must be learnt.