Epidemics and the global village

The agitating Ebola emergency has captured headlines. There are some who undoubtedly assume that this kind of epidemic is unusual. However, localized epidemic disease has been a part of the biological system of the planet since the origin of life. Pandemics in which the spread of disease can encompass a continent or the world are just as ancient a process.

We humans have an extensive acquaintance with epidemics and pandemics. Many occurred long before the modern era with its current ease of global travel or any concerns about a changing climate. Our written record of epidemics can be traced as far back as the Ten Plagues of Egypt, which devastated livestock and humans. There are extensive and graphic descriptions of the prior pandemic spread of bubonic plague in Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages that occurred in successive waves.