Historical Perspectives of Pandemics and Epidemics

Major public health diseases have plagued humanity from the pre-historic and Biblical eras. There is nothing to suggest that these events will end soon, especially in the wake of this COVID-19 pandemic. In our contemporary life, certain factors such as increasing globalization, poor sanitary and veterinary practices, global warming/climate change, ineffective surveillance systems for early detection among other issues facilitates epidemics and pandemics. Dr. Amofah in this presentation gave some examples of major epidemics and pandemics as well as lessons moving forward.