New+World+Epidemics

media type="custom" key="27904879" An **epidemic** (from the Greek //epi-// ("upon") and //demos// ("people")) is the rapid and extensive spreading of a [|disease] whereby there is a temporary and substantial increase in the number of cases beyond what is expected for a given population over a given period of time. An example of an epidemic would be an influenza that impacts thousands of people in a month in a nation. A **pandemic** is simply an epidemic that affects a large proportion of the population and spreads across a large region (for example a continent), or even worldwide. Beyond the extraordinary human suffering—such as with the [|bubonic plague] that killed 20 million Europeans in six years (a quarter of the total population)—epidemics and pandemics have changed the course of history. The balance of power between [|Athens] and [|Sparta] was shifted by [|typhoid fever] around 430 B.C.E., which killed a quarter of the Athenian troops. The [|Roman Empire] twice lost a quarter to a third of its population in epidemics, probably first smallpox and then [|measles]. The two epidemics weakened the Empire and advanced the spread of Christianity as [|pagans] fell into chaos, abandoned the sick, and fled the cities, while Christians maintained networks caring for both Christian and pagan sick and survived in significantly higher ratio than pagans, many of whom converted to the apparently superior Christian faith. Old World diseases caused epidemics killing an estimated 90 to 95 percent of indigenous North American peoples, and [|corn] found in a village abandoned due to an epidemic nurtured the founding [|American] [|Pilgrims]. [|Typhus] played a major role in the destruction of [|Napoleon] 's army in 1812, in [|Russia].