Top Infectious Disease Epidemics Chart

For some reason I happened upon the following Wikipedia list of epidemics, scrolled through it, and noticed quite a few repeats and began to wonder what epidemics really repeated over and over again throughout history. So, I did the only thing I knew how to do and tallied it all up in Excel (see the chart below).

A few things to know:

1. I have no idea if the list I tallied from is even remotely complete or not, so take the data only at face value.
2. The epidemics list ran from essentially 165 AD to present but did include a few data points well before that time so I included them as well because the list did.
3. I did NOT include any epidemics that were only listed one time in the chart below. There were several notables, including diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B, Mumps, Polio, and more.
4. There’s probably something to be said for diseases that were more recent in history, so you should review the original list and take note of diseases that were more recent because–I would think–these are more likely to show up again anytime soon.

Here’s the chart (note that I color-coded them to stand out):

A few things stand out to me looking at the above chart:

1. The plague, cholera, and smallpox seemed to be the top-tier diseases, if you will, that repeat over and over again. In fact, each one individually has doubled up any other lower-tiered disease. Perhaps these are the most critical to pay attention to?
2. While I’m ignorant of disease history, I was surprised to see that the pluague and smallpox repeated so often. I thought these were one-time things? Guess not.
3. I also would have imagined that influenza would top the charts by a large margin considering that the flu returns every years. After all, we have a flu season! …must be criteria for being an epidemic.

Fortunately, cholera should be manageable because it’s a disease that stems from unsanitary practices. I’m not sure what to do about the plague or smallpox other than isolation quick and early. As for the other, lower-tier diseases, it’s mostly the same protocol: ISOLATION! That’s why prepping is so critical. If you can afford to isolate your family for a few months without much trouble then you’re better off than 99% of the population who coldn’t do so.