A brief history of past global pandemics: phasing and origin

The term Pandemic has been used to describe the global spread of an infectious disease across multiple countries and involving multiple continents. Such an international health crisis may prove catastrophic for nations worldwide in terms of overburdening the healthcare system as well as causing economic stagnation. Halting & controlling the spread of a worldwide disease outbreak requires time bound strategic interventions from the authorities at National, sub national and international levels along with joint cooperative efforts from private and public sectors. Majority of pandemics arise from cross species transmission of pathogens, wherein the microorganism mutates or transforms itself to jump from animals to humans and then disease spreads via human to human transmission at an accelerated rate. The current paper outlines the history of major pandemic outbreaks starting from the Antonine Plague of 165 – 180 AD to the current COVID – 19 pandemic.