Last century’s epidemics more deadly than today’s

PARIS: Before the emergence of the new coronavirus, which has sparked worldwide panic, other epidemics had struck earlier in the 21’st century, but were less deadly than the previous century’s pandemics.

The deadliest epidemic of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola broke out in West Africa in December 2013 and lasted more than two years, killing more than 11,300, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

First identified in 1976, Ebola is less contagious than other viral diseases, but is particularly lethal, killing around 40 percent. The virus re-emerged in August 2018 in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where it has so far killed more than 2,200.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says 18,500 died of so-called "Swine flu", or H1N1, which was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States in March 2009.

The Lancet medical review, however, puts the toll at between 151,700 and 575,400. The pandemic alert was launched on June 11, 2009 and lifted on August 10, 2010 but the virus turned out to be not as deadly as first feared.