What is a Pandemic? And Pandemics in the history …. what has China done to control COVID-19?

(2 min read)

A Pandemic is the widespread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time. People think that epidemic and pandemic is the same thing but there is a slight difference, epidemic is within a certain population but pandemic is a disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide. COVID-19 was an epidemic but now it is a pandemic disease.

The history of pandemics that have rocked the world over the last century from Spanish flu to corona-virus commonly called as COVID-19.

1918 just as world war 1 was coming to an end the world was hit by a devastating outbreak of flu, it was caused by a virus thought to have come from birds (source: US centers for disease control and prevention ) it infected 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population, and 50 million died in three waves of infection including a large number of healthy people from the age of 20 and 40.

1957 a new flu emerged in east Asia. It was detected in Singapore and Hong Kong (source: US centers for disease control and prevention). This H2N2 virus was soon found in coastal cities in the US. It killed more than 1 million people worldwide, and more than 10% of those who were in the US at that time.

1968 again a highly contagious new flu virus spread across the globe, this one was related to the virus that caused the 1957 pandemic, it mutates quickly, making it hard to develop a vaccine ( source: Reuters) Ana killed about 1 million people worldwide (source: US centers for disease and prevention) most were over 65 years old, THE VIRUS CONTINUES TO CIRCULATE AS SEASONAL FLU TODAY.

1980s A new virus began to spread HIV, it has claimed around 75 million people and has claimed 32 million lives (source: world health organisation). There were 38 million people living with HIV in 2018 including 1.7 children, the advances in treatment has dropped the fatality rate, 770,000 people died from HIV-related illness in 2018 and it still does not have any vaccine available (source: Fred Hutchinson cancer research center).

Today the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world with hundreds of thousands of cases (source: world meters) and an increasing death toll, there is no vaccine or cure yet.

Many people who are in quarantine/isolation believe that they need to go out and this lock-down should not be happening at this time but lock-down was necessary, the countries like Italy and Iran didn't take Covid-19 as something really serious and sever and there death rates due to Covid-19 are highest of all countries right now. And countries like China has taken smarts and bold measures and made this crucial time bearable for the people of China and has treated 80,000 cases because they had lock-down everything at that time, now everything and everyone is getting back to normal, Now China has Covid-19 under control although it was the origin of this virus and only one doctor has died because of this virus who actually identified it. On 23^rd January Wuhan and nearby cities in Hubei went into strict lock down. More than 50 million people were under mandatory quarantine (source: American Association for the advancement of science), two special hospitals were built over a week. Health workers were sent to Hubei from all over China, schools and businesses were closed for an extended break after Lunar new year, everyone who went outside had to wear a mask, theaters, cinemas and sports events were shut down, and mobile apps were used to track people’s movements with a green, yellow or red traffic-light symbol on everyone's phone showing if they were healthy enough to travel. And now across China people are getting back to work now.

The issue in Pakistan is that we do not have enough technology and equipment like China. China is the 2^nd richest country in the world, and there is not even a proper lock-down in Pakistan because id we do that it will really affect the poor people of our country who cannot afford even a week’s food altogether. Pakistan is trying really hard to cope-up with this matter so that Pakistan would not end up like Italy or Iran but people of Pakistan are still not taking it seriously. They are thinking that the time that has given to them is vacation but it's not, they need to know they are doing wrong, they should stay at home to stay safe because now Pakistan is at great risk.