Watch how coronavirus compares to other pandemics through history

Cases of the new coronavirus continue to rise around the world. But COVID-19 is not the first widespread disease that has surged around the world, nor will it be the last. Let’s take a look at the other pandemics the world has experienced in recent history.

The 1918 influenza

The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, the most severe pandemic in recent history, affected nearly a third of the global population in over two years, and killed an estimated 50 million. There is no consensus about where the virus originated.

Asian flu

In February 1957, a new influenza emerged in China, triggering a pandemic that killed nearly 2 million people worldwide in 1957-58.

SARS

The severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, caused by a coronavirus, was first reported in Asia in 2003. In just a matter of months, it spread to more than 29 countries, affecting over 8,000 people and killing 774.

Swine flu

In 2009, the H1N1 virus emerged first in the US, and later spread across the world. From April 2009 to April 2010, some 60.8 million fell sick, and 12,469 died. People are still affected by the swine flu to this day.

Ebola

It emerged in Guinea in December 2013. It killed up to 50 percent of those who contracted it — a total 11,325 by March 2016.

MERS

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and has since spread to 26 other countries, with 858 deaths out of 2,494 infected cases.

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