The Human Toll of Viral Diseases: Past Plagues and Pending Pandemics

This chapter profiles some examples of past and current viral infections that have levied a high toll in human misery and mortality, and derives a number of lessons about the dynamics of viral pandemics. Viral epidemics can be very disruptive to civil society, and—conversely—civil disasters can trigger viral epidemics. Furthermore, viruses likely play an insidious role in initiating a number of chronic diseases whose burden is ever increasing. Evolving technologies have led to much more rapid detection of emerging viral diseases anywhere in the world. However, current efforts to mitigate the toll of viral diseases are less than satisfactory, and futurists predict the emergence of new pandemics particularly of zoonotic origin. Pathogenesis—the subject of this book—informs ongoing efforts to mitigate the toll of viral disease.