An interesting fact about human health is that, throughout history, epidemics have occurred that have had serious impacts on various populations.

When a particular disease occurs in considerably higher numbers than normal over a particular time, it is referred to as an epidemic.

You will learn more about epidemics of the past in this activity.

Scientists have evidence of significant epidemics that have occurred in the past.

• Greek literature has references to an illness that killed many people about 400 BC. Scientists think that the deaths may have been due to influenza (the flu).

• In the 1300s, a disease referred to as the "Black Death" or the "bubonic plague" spread from China throughout Asia and Europe, killing an estimated one-third of the population.

• Smallpox has caused millions of deaths in several epidemics throughout history. In 1493, Christopher Columbus and his crew landed on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Unknowingly, they infected many of the people living there, killing 99% of the island population.

• In the early 1600s, a smallpox epidemic spread from explorers in Nova Scotia through the 13 colonies that would become the United States. From this epidemic, a number of outbreaks continued to flare up several times over the next three hundred years, killing many Canadian settlers and Indigenous people.

• In 1918, the most serious pandemic occurred when a strain of the influenza (flu) virus spread worldwide in about a year and a half, killing millions of people. (Scientists have a special word for diseases that are extremely difficult to control. They refer to them as pandemics. Pandemic diseases affect a large proportion of the population over a large geographic area.) In fact, "the flu" killed more people than were killed in the First World War (1914–1918).

You can see that, although many advances in medicine were made over the past two thousand years, great health problems can occur through the transmission of disease worldwide.           

In Canada ...

You may recall from other courses that explorers from Europe brought many things to the New World — iron pots, rifles, horses, etc. What affected Indigenous peoples the most were the diseases they brought — including flu, smallpox, and tuberculosis. Because they had never before been exposed to certain illnesses,  Indigenous peoples were not able to fight the diseases. As a result, millions died.

The lives of Indigenous peoples changed greatly due to the many who died. There were fewer hunters, so more people starved. Many young women died, and so the birth rates in Indigenous communities slowed considerably. And many elders died before they were able to pass on the knowledge of important traditions, and so the knowledge of customs was lost.